A GROUP set up to campaign for justice for murdered French film producer Sophie Toscan du Plantier have said they are very hopeful that significant progress will be made in 2009 in bringing her killer to justice.
Jean Pierre Gazeau, president of the Association for the Truth About the Murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier, said yesterday he expected an investigation by a French magistrate would make good progress in 2009.
"We have a strong hope that Sophie's killer will be brought to justice - that is the whole rationale for our existence - and we strongly believe that good progress will have been made before the 13th anniversary of Sophie's death in 2009," said Mr Gazeau.
Mr Gazeau, an uncle of Ms Toscan du Plantier, said four translators were working full time on translating the Garda file on the killing and he expected a translation to be ready for Judge Patrick Gachon by the end of February.
"All the evidence in the file will then be analysed by Judge Gachon who will decide on a strategy in terms of calling witnesses and hearing testimony," said Mr Gazeau at a press conference in Cork yesterday.
Judge Gachon could choose to invite witnesses to come to France to testify, or he might opt to send some of his investigators to Ireland to speak with witnesses and ask them to confirm statements that they made to gardaí, he said.
The body of the French film producer was found with serious head injuries on the laneway leading to her holiday home at Toormore between Schull and Goleen in west Cork on the morning of December 23rd, 1996.
Mr Gazeau confirmed that it was possible for the French authorities to prosecute in absentia a person accused of the murder of a French citizen outside of France and instanced the case of a Tunisian national prosecuted in absentia in France for torture offences in Tunisia.
Mr Gazeau conceded that Judge Gachon was restricted in that he cannot compel witnesses to testify, but he pointed out that he believed there was more "latitude" available to the judge under the French system than under the Irish system of justice and that would allow progress to be made.
Judge Gachon will also receive newspaper reports on the killing as well as transcripts of a libel action and subsequent appeal brought by English journalist Ian Bailey over newspaper reports linking him to the murder, said Mr Gazeau.
The group's vice-president, Jean Antoine Bloc-Daudet, said that while an exhumation of Ms Toscan du Plantier's body last July had not yielded any significant DNA evidence, they were still hopeful that DNA samples taken at a postmortem in Ireland may prove helpful.Asked if they had any message for whoever killed Ms Toscan du Plantier, Mr Gazeau said they hoped that person would help the inquiry so they could "sleep more quietly".
Secretary of the group Francis Lefevre said he hoped that whoever had killed Ms Toscan du Plantier - his cousin - was feeling nervous as a result of their activities over the past year and pointed out that great progress had been made in the past two months with the handing over of the Garda file.
The group later travelled to Toormore where they joined Sophie's parents, Georges and Marguerite Bouniol, in holding a candlelit vigil at the spot where her body was found 12 years ago.
