Sophie Toscan du Plantier’s family has called for an official inquest into her death following the Tánaiste Micheál Martin’s comments about the case.
Ms. du Plantier, a 39-year-old French film producer, was found murdered outside her West Cork home in December 1996.
Former journalist Ian Bailey, who died in January this year, was arrested on two occasions relating to the investigation and was convicted of Ms. du Plantier’s murder in France.
However, throughout his life, Mr. Bailey denied any involvement in her death and said he was determined to clear his name.
Ian Bailey in 2020. (RollingNews.ie)
The Tánaiste said on Thursday at the book launch of "Sophie: The Final Verdict" by Senan Molony that Ireland "failed to deliver justice" and "hold her murderer to account."
"The terrible anguish of her family and all who knew her was made much worse by the fact that our system proved incapable of meeting its responsibilities to Sophie…
"The simple fact is that we failed in our duty to find and convict a bloody murderer – and our system blocked alternative routes when others were not willing to accept our failures," Mr. Martin said.
Mr. Martin added: "When the French state sought justice for its murdered citizen, the Irish courts were successfully used to block its efforts and for every failure there was an excuse. Often these excuses relied on high principles of law and justice."
The Tánaiste said that "the evidence against the main suspect [Ian Bailey] was broad and deep," going on to say that Mr. Bailey was a "violent man."
September 13, 2024: Tanaiste Micheal Martin was asked about Sophie Toscan du Plantier. (RollingNews.ie)
Speaking to NewsTalk’s The Hard Shoulder on Friday, Ms. Du Plantier’s uncle Jean Pierre Gazeau said that her family wants to see movement on her case as he criticised the State.
"We believe that an official inquest must be launched," Mr. Gazeau said.
He continued: "The Irish State really failed [Ms. du Plantier] – we have so many examples of this kind of failing. We have the feeling that many, many advances could have been done in 1997 already.
"[One of the] early failures is to make Ian Bailey free after just 12 hours. The fact that the DPP didn’t take a decision and allowed the release of a text against the work by the Garda in 2000," he said.
Mr. Gazeau continued: "French justice took a decision in 2019 so for us Ian Bailey has been considered as a killer and has been judged in France in absentia.
"But a lot of things we don’t know – we don’t know exactly what happened between 11 pm on December 22, 1996, and 10:30 am the next day.
"We have a complete dark period of time, we don’t know anything. We don’t know the exact time of the death of Sophie, we don’t know if Ian Bailey was alone or was with someone – we don’t know anything about that period."
*This article was originally published on Extra.ie.
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