The State will not appeal the decision to refuse to hand over Ian Bailey to the French authorities

Updated 2 hours ago

THE STATE will not appeal the High Court’s decision to refuse to hand Ian Bailey over to the French authorities to serve a 25-year prison sentence imposed by a French court for the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier 24 years ago.

Today in Superior Court, Robert Barron SC, representative of the Attorney General, told Judge Paul Burns that the State was not seeking a certificate to appeal the judge’s decision. Judge Burns also ordered that Bailey be able to recover his legal costs from the State.

Barron further told the judge that Ms. Toscan du Plantier’s family wanted a copy of the judge’s ruling, delivered earlier this month, rejecting Bailey’s request to surrender. The judge said a copy of his ruling should be available to the family and French authorities.

Bailey (63) of The Prairie, Liscaha, Schull, West Cork, denies any involvement in the death of Ms. Du Plantier, who was found dead outside her Schull vacation home in December 1996. He has been arrested twice but never charged in connection with his death.

In May 2019, the former journalist was found guilty of the murder of the French woman in her absence by the Cour d’Assises (court of first instance) of Paris, made up of three judges, which imposed a prison sentence of 25 years. Bailey did not attend the French court and did not have legal representation in the process, which he has described as a “farce.”

In his judgment of 12 October in which he rejected the State’s request to surrender Bailey, who is a British citizen normally residing in Ireland, the judge ruled that his surrender was prohibited by article 44 of the European Arrest Warrant Act. of 2003. This article deals with crimes committed outside the State requesting the surrender of an alleged offender.

Under Irish law, the state could prosecute a murder committed outside of Ireland where the alleged offender is an Irish citizen or ordinarily resides here.
However, in France an “extraterritorial” proceeding can be instituted on the basis that the alleged victim was French. In this case, France is seeking the surrender of a non-French citizen or resident for an alleged murder committed outside of France.

In his judgment, Judge Burns determined that there was no reciprocity between French and Irish law in the exercise of extraterritorial jurisdiction for the crime of murder in this case, as the French basis for extraterritoriality remains the nationality of the alleged victim while an Irish base would. Be the nationality or habitual residence of the alleged perpetrator.