IAN BAILEY’S solicitor Frank Buttimer has questioned the motives of the French authorities in issuing a European Arrest Warrant for his client and queried whether they had been given a full file on the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier by the Garda.
Mr Buttimer said yesterday that neither Mr Bailey nor he had had any contact or communication from French magistrate Judge Patrick Gachon, and he queried the specific purpose for which the French authorities were seeking to extradite his client to France.
If the French authorities were seeking to extradite Mr Bailey to charge him with murder, it would not happen as he could not be charged with an offence in France when the Director of Public Prosecutions here had already decided not to prosecute him for such an offence, he said.
“I’m not an expert in French law and I don’t know who these investigating magistrates are or what their status is, but I certainly believe there is one of two situations going on here,” Mr Buttimer told the Neil Prendeville Show on Cork’s 96FM yesterday morning.
Mr Buttimer said the first was that the French magistrates had “been given selective information by the Irish police” as they had “a very limited understanding of what this case is truly about from the Bailey perspective”.
The second possibility was that it was “the last throw of their particular dice” as they must know that there was no chance of extraditing someone from Ireland “against all the principles of Irish law” to stand trial in France and “they are just doing it for optical purposes”.
Mr Buttimer said that given that he believed the European Arrest Warrant had no chance of succeeding in the Irish courts, it was “a nonsense” to proceed with it and was only likely to add further to the grief and upset of Ms Toscan du Plantier’s family.
“If it’s intended to be a removal of somebody from Ireland to face a murder charge in France, it’s a nonsense and do you know who the victim is? – the unfortunate family of the lady who has been killed because their expectations are being raised by some nonsensical legal manoeuvre.”
Asked how Mr Bailey felt about the issuing by the French of the European warrant, Mr Buttimer replied that Mr Bailey was “a bit agitated . . . He would be perturbed that this thing in his life is back again and it’s very difficult to shake it off.”
Alain Spilliaert, solicitor for Ms Toscan du Plantier’s parents Georges and Marguerite Bouniol, told The Irish Times it might be of benefit to Mr Bailey to come to France to be charged as it would give him access to the Garda file.
“I understand that Mr Bailey is seeking access to the police file for his case against the Irish police – sometimes in France, in cases, for example of white-collar crime, people ask a magistrate to charge them as it means they get immediate access to the full police file.
“If Mr Bailey has nothing to hide and is completely innocent as he has always said, then it should not be difficult for him to come to France and explain everything to the magistrate and at the same time get access to the file,” said Mr Spilliaert.
Asked about Mr Buttimer’s suggestion that gardaí might have sent selective information to France, a Garda spokesman said both the full murder file and the Garda review on the original investigation had been sent through the appropriate channels to the French authorities.
