| schema:articleBody
| - French authorities attempting to extradite a Briton convicted of the 1996 murder of a French woman have built a "wall of silence" around the case, an Irish court heard Thursday. Ian Bailey, 63, is resisting extradition to France at a Dublin court after a Paris court last year sentenced him to 25 years for the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier. Plantier, the 39-year-old wife of French film producer Daniel Toscan du Plantier, was found dead outside her isolated holiday home near the seaside village of Schull in southwest Ireland in December 1996. She was found wearing night clothes having been beaten on the head with a concrete block in one of Ireland and France's most notoriously unresolved killings. Bailey -- who was arrested and questioned but never charged by Irish prosecutors over the case -- watched from the back of the court on Thursday. He did not speak during the second day of proceedings as his lawyer David Smyth said there had been a "wall of silence" from French authorities making the extradition bid. Smyth said they had failed to explain their "wanton" delay in prosecuting the case 23 years on from Plantier's death. "No attempt was made to engage," he added. Defence lawyer Ronan Munro questioned France's claim of jurisdiction over an alleged crime by a foreign national in a third-party country. "If an English man in France... were to take the life of an Irish woman we wouldn't have jurisdiction," he told judge Paul Burns. Munro said the French prosecution was based on an Irish investigation but that Irish officials had "a ringside view of the investigation and the shenanigans going on" and had declined to charge Bailey. "The DPP (Director of Public prosecutions) declined to prosecute based on lack of evidence and furthermore found that the case had been prejudiced against him," he said. The Plantier case has been plagued by issues from the start. A forensic officer did not reach the scene for 36 hours, a key witness later recanted her statement and the police investigation was described as "thoroughly flawed" by the then Irish director of public prosecutions. In 2014 Plantier's family denounced the Irish investigation as a "fiasco" and a "denial of justice". French extradition bids for Bailey were previously struck down by Ireland's supreme court in 2012 and the high court in 2017, with Munro saying French authorities had now "lost the right" to make a third attempt. He asked the court to "finally let Mr Bailey get on with his life". As the hearing began, Burns offered the courts condolences to the Plantier family through a representative present in the audience. "Court hearings of any kind can be distressing," Burns said from behind a perspex barrier. "By its nature such an exercise may seem rather cold and dry." "The dry nature of these proceedings should not be taken as an indication anyone has forgotten the tragic background of this matter." The hearing is due to continue on Friday with a decision expected at a later date. jts/jwp/txw
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)