This article is more than 9 months old

This article is more than 9 months old

Ian Bailey, a British former journalist, could face extradition from Ireland to France where he has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for the murder of a French film-maker, Sophie Toscan du Plantier.

Bailey, 62, was arrested and bailed on Monday after the high court in Dublin endorsed a European arrest warrant issued by a Paris court, in the latest twist in a long-running case that has divided public and legal opinion.

As a condition of bail he must surrender his passport while the extradition process continues. The next hearing is listed for 20 January.

Bailey has vehemently denied any involvement in the killing of du Plantier, whose bludgeoned body was discovered near her holiday home in west Cork on 23 December 1996.

Bailey lives in a cottage three miles from the scene and filed articles on the crime until becoming the prime suspect, a label that has stuck for 23 years.

Irish prosecutors long ago decided there was insufficient evidence to press charges, but in May a French court convicted Bailey in absentia and sentenced him to 25 years, prompting a fresh extradition attempt. Irish authorities have rejected two previous extradition attempts.

Bailey’s lawyers objected to the warrant’s endorsement on the grounds that the high court had already ruled against an extradition attempt by the French in 2017, deeming it an abuse of process. Endorsing a third warrant would expose Bailey to another abuse of process, his lawyers said.

Lawyers for the state argued that the law had changed since the 2017 decision and that in the meantime Bailey had been convicted of murder in a trial in France.

Mr Justice Donald Binchy said he was satisfied that the warrant should be endorsed and said the court would schedule a full extradition hearing later.

Bailey was released on bail on his own bond of €15,000 pending the full hearing in the new year.

A media scrum awaited Bailey when he emerged from court. “I was arrested and bailed and I’m out,” he told the Guardian. “I’m not making any comment right now.”

Irish detectives who investigated the murder of du Plantier were convinced of Bailey’s guilt. He had cuts on his face and hands, a record of violence against his partner, Jules Thomas, and admitted to having left his cottage – to go to an adjacent shed to write an article, he said – on the night of the murder.

However, there was no forensic evidence linking Bailey to the scene and a key witness retracted testimony, saying police had improperly pressured her.

After Irish prosecutors declined to press charges, French authorities brought the case to Paris where it was heard by three judges. Under French law, a person suspected of murdering a French citizen in another jurisdiction can be tried in France.

Du Plantier’s relatives led a campaign for Bailey’s extradition. In May her son Pierre-Louis Baudey-Vignaud visited County Cork and made an emotional address from a church pulpit, saying his mother was not a ghost. “She is the victim of human cruelty and violence which has no place here.” He urged witnesses to attend the trial.

The family called the guilty verdict a victory for truth and justice. Bailey did not attend, calling the trial a farce. “All they’ve done is convict an innocent man who had nothing to do with the crime,” he said at the time. “All they’ve got is a pyrrhic victory.”

A 13-part podcast titled West Cork has shone new light on the case. The director Jim Sheridan is making a documentary.

Bailey used to run a small news agency in Cheltenham that supplied stories to the Sunday Times, and now ekes out a living selling art, poetry and pizzas in west Cork.