The body of Sophie Toscan du Plantier, who was murdered in West Cork in 1996, was exhumed in south-central France today.
The procedure was ordered by Judge Patrick Gachon, the most recent of several examining magistrates assigned to the case.
The exhumation began at 5.30am in Conbret and took an hour and a half. A detailed autopsy will be conducted in Paris over the next week.
The family of Ms Toscan du Plantier, who was murdered on December 23rd, 1996, say the exhumation and autopsy is the first step in a legal campaign which they hope will result in the extradition and prosecution in France of the man who they believe killed her. Such a trial is possible because she was a French citizen.
No one has been charged with her murder.
Eric Dupond-Moretti, the criminal lawyer recently hired by the victim's family, told The Irish Timeshe expects Judge Gachon to conduct a thorough murder investigation.
A campaign group, the Association for the Truth about the Death of Sophie Toscan du Plantier, has provided Mr Dupond-Moretti with the names and addresses of most of the witnesses in a related libel trial in Cork in December 2003.
At the outcome of that trial, Judge Patrick Moran ruled that six newspapers had not libelled the English journalist Ian Bailey by identifying him as the chief suspect in the killing.
Eight people -Bill Fuller, Helen Callanan, Yvonne Ungerer, Malachi Reed, Richard and Rosie Shelley, Diane Martin and Marie Farrell -reportedly said that Mr Bailey told them or strongly suggested to them that he killed Ms Toscan du Plantier.
At the trial, Ms Farrell said she was intimidated by Mr Bailey after testifying that she had seen him near Ms Toscan du Plantier’s home on the night of the murder. Nearly a year later, she retracted her testimony against him.
Judge Gachon apparently hopes to build a case strong enough to justify the issuance of a European arrest warrant.
If a warrant is issued, it is up to the Garda to arrest the suspect. He could challenge the warrant in an Irish court. Mr Gazeau said that if there is no result by the end of this year, the family would go to “the European level”.
Mr and Mrs Bouniol, along with Ms Toscan du Plantier's late husband Daniel, filed a French civil suit against Mr Bailey in 1997. He was questioned about the killing by gardaí in February 1997 and January 1998, but no charges were ever brought.
