A GROUP set up to promote the investigation and prosecution of those responsible for the murder of French woman Sophie Toscan du Plantier wants the rights of the dead woman's family acknowledged by the Irish legal system, as they are in French law.
At a press conference in Dublin at the weekend, Ms Toscan du Plantier's uncle, Jean Pierre Gazeau, who is president of the new association, said families of murder victims in France were constantly kept informed during the murder investigation.
They can be represented as partis civiles within the investigation and trial, which is presided over by a magistrate, and they receive information about the progress of the investigation.
"We are not saying the French system is optimal, not at all," Mr Gazeau said, "but we want to take the best of the French system, which is information for the victims, and we want to support the parents of Sophie.
"We know that at the beginning of an investigation the police need a bit of peace and quiet to carry out the investigation, but after 11 years, nothing has happened. Why can we get no information now?"
Ms Toscan du Plantier's body was found on December 23rd, 1996, at Dunmanus West, Goleen, west Cork, near her holiday home. No one has been charged with her murder.
In February 1997 and January 1998, Ian Bailey, an English journalist living in Schull, was questioned by gardaí about the killing, but no charges were ever brought.