The French couple suspected of infanticide scream foul play

Jean-Louis Courjault’s lawyer thinks his client is the victim of a plot to taint his employer’s image.

Could the recent discovery of two dead babies at the residence of Jean-Louis Courjault and his spouse, in Seoul [South Korea], be the result of an ugly scheme with economic motivations? This is what Marc Morin argues. He denounces the media and judicial lynching, arranged by the Korean authorities. Yesterday, the couple was interviewed for two hours by the Tours police, and were free to go at the end of the interview. French prosecutors are said to be about to ask Seoul to communicate them the elements they have collected so far on the case.

This case, which has been for several days now front-page material in Korea, started on July 26 {I believe it July 23… dda}, when Jean-Louis Courjault reported to the police the discovery on that morning of two babies, wrapped in a plastic bag, in a freezer located on the veranda of his house. He had just arrived in Seoul, in the middle of his vacation, which he was spending with his family in Indre Et Loire, for a short business trip. He assured South-Korean investigators that he had nothing to do with these babies, and couldn’t explain how they had turned up at his place. Released shortly thereafter, he was then allowed to go back to France until the end of August.

However, the analysis of DNA samples, taken on Jean-Louis Courjault and a hairbrush and earswabs supposed to belong to his wife, tends to prove that the French couple are indeed the parents of these babies. Which is why the South Korean police wants them to return as quickly as possible to Seoul, so that they can interrogate them. They asked France for help, and a prelimiray investigation was opened on Tuesday.

“People must have entered their home during their absence”

Yesterday, after his clients’ interview, Marc Morin tried to refute these material elements. He explained that Without tests made by a French laboratory, I consider that there is nothing against my clients. He says he is convinced that Jean-Louis Courjaut is the victim of a plot, and further explained that During the month that the Ciurjault family spent together in France, the alarm system in their Seoul residence was activated four times, which means that people visited their home while they were away. Another troubling element is the disappearence of a key and a keycard to their home, located in the French expat area, reported by Jean-Louis Courjault. Moreover, the consumption of electricity is said to have been during that month almost as high as a normal month.

Which leads Morin to conclude: My client is an engineer for an American company producing electronic equipment for automobiles. In this high-tech sector, the competition is extremely fierce, and we can’t exclude that he is the victim of a plot. The couple has declared that they have no intention to go back to Korea.

Korea, Courjault, Frozen Babies

Pardon the convoluted style and possible odd mistakes, the original is badly written, and this is a rush job.

Frozen babies: French couple talked to Tours police, but free to go

TOURS [AFP] - The French couple, expatriated in South Korea, in whose freezer the corpses of two newborns were found, went to talk with Tours police on their own initiative, and were free to go after two hours of interrogation.

“This was just an interview; the police couldn’t hold them for further interrogation, as they saw that the case was quite empty,” their lawyer, Marc Morin, told AFP.

He emphasised the fact that the interview was done at Jean-Louis Courjault’s and his spouse’s request, after the south korean police, prosecution and press had implied their responsibility, following the discovery late July of the bodies of two newborns in their freezer, wrapped in plastic bags.

“The Korean prosecution went public with elements without measuring their consequences,” the lawyer added, stating he was surprised by the “media and diplomatic frenzy deployed in Korea about this case.”

He also mentioned the possibility of an “economic manipulation, staged to discredit” Mr. Courjault, a high-level engineer for an American company based in Seoul.

Mr and Mrs Courjault, both in their 40s, have two sons, aged 10 and 11. They arrived on foot at Tours precinct, their faces drawb. They left by an out-of-the-way exit, without talking to the press.

According to the South Korean police, Mr. Courjault himself discovered the babies on July 23, during a short business trip back to Seoul on his own, a month after his holidays had started.

He immediately went to a police station to report the discovery, “which wouldn’t have been exactly in his interest had he been involved anywhere in this case,” his lawyer emphasised.

After a first investigation, the South Korean police allowed Mr. Courjault to go back to France. Later, they published the results of DNA tests which would tend to prove that the couple are the parents of the babies. Morin said that the couple had steadfastly contested the validity of these tests.

A preliminary investigation has been opened this week in Tours, in Indre Et Loire, where the couiple has a house and are currently spending their vacation.

However, “French prosecutors are still waiting for an official request for mutual assistance from South Korean authorities,” stated Sylvie Pantz, from the Orléans DA office, in charge of communicating with the press on this case.

However, when taking into accounts problems related to translation and summer vacations, it may take “months” before elements held by South Korean authorities reach French investigators, Pantz added.

The South Korean police declared they wanted the French couple back in Seoul for interrogation.

“Considering the media frenzy around this case in South Korea, my clients do not wish to return there, and intend to stay in France for the time being,” stated Morin, their lawyer.

Korea, Courjault, Frozen Babies

More rehash of the Korea Times, this is not what the kind of professionalism I expect from Le Figaro… Tells you how desperate and clueless journos are when it comes to “exotic” countries…

Preliminary investigation opened against French expats in Korea, suspected of infanticide

JUSTICE. Tours’ prosecutors opened yesterday a preliminary investigation on the recent discovery of two babies discovered at the residence of two French expatriates in Seoul (see yesterday’s article). Having been informed that the French couple is actually spending the summer vacations in their Indre et Loire home, the South Korean police had alerted as early as last Friday the office of Orléans’ DA. Orléans’s regional police is in charge of the investigation.
During the last few days, the Korean police seems to have spared no efforts to go to the bottom of the discovery made on July 23 by a 40 year-old Frenchman, employed by a multinational company in the automotive electronic equipment sector. Jean-Louis C. is said to have told the investigators that he found the bodies of two newborns in a plastic bag inside his freezer, during a short stay in Seoul, in the middle of his vacation. He then left Korea for France, with the consent of the police, on July 29.
Since then, a series of genetical tests done at the Korean institute for scientific investigations seem to have established that Jean-Louis C. is the father of the newborns. According to the Korea Times, other tests on smaples coming from a hair brush and two cotton swabs, supposedly belonging to his spouse, seem to point to her as the mother of the babies. Moreover, investigators have found out that this woman, aged 39, had undergone surgery in December 2003 in order to remove the uterus, following an infection. Which would prove that the death of the babies would have happened as far back as two years ago.
The Korean police, which wants to bring in the woman as a suspect, now hopes for a rompt return to Seoul of the couple. Jean-Louis C., qho was scheduled to return to Korea at the end of the month, couldn’t be forced to, since France doesn’t make it a habit of extraditing its citizens.

Korea, Courjault, Frozen Babies

Source: AP

Suspected infanticide in South Korea: investigation opened in France

PARIS (AP) - [French] Ministry of Justice asked last week Tours’ [Indre et Loire] prosecutors to open a preliminary investigation on a French couple living in Seoul [South Korea], the husband, aged 40, having reported on July 23 the presence of two babies in their freezer.

Alerted by Korean authorities, via France’s State Department, the Ministry of Justice expects to receive an official request for mutual judicial assistance, although nothing has arrived yet, the office of the Secretary of Justice confirmed.

Meanwhile, the preliminary investigation is expected to yield basic information on this expat couple, presently on vacation in France, in the region of Tours.

Of particular notice is the fact that the husband himself, only identified as “C”, informed himself the Seoul police of the discovery of two babies in a freezer in his appartment, in the southern part of Seoul, where many French expats reside.

According to the south-korean police, the husband had come back from France on his own, where he had gone to earlier with his family. Preliminary DNA tests showed that he was the father of the babies, which he consistently denied. However, the results of these tests were only made public on July 28, after he’d left back for France.

Last Monday, the police declared that further DNA tests showed that it was highly probable that “V”, “C”’s wife, was the mother of these babies. Meanwhile, the couple refused to return to Seoul, where they had been living since 2002, before August 2002. Inbetween, the Korean authorities asked France to gather more information.

Yonhap news agency reported that “V” had undergone surgery in 2003, and had her uterus removed. Thus, babies would have been born before that date. The couple has two other children. AP

Korea, Courjault, Frozen Babies

This case has finally reached the French news. Here’s a translation of an article, the first I saw about the subject, in Le Figaro. I could provide a summary and a bunch of links, but since the Marmot has everything…

As an aside, I have now their address and phone number – since France’s Yellow pages are quite efficient… Even got a satellite photo of their village

South Korea suspects two French citizens of infanticide

JUSTICE
Two newborns discovered in Seoul in a freezer at French expats home

This case has been puzzling Seoul’s police for three weeks already. And now it is embarrassing the French justice system, which has received a description of the two people through diplomatic services. Recently, South Korean authorities have communicated to the Tours DA the identity of two French citizens, who currently reside in a village in Indre-Et-Loire [150 miles south of Paris]. The man, aged 40, and his wife, are sought for by Seoul’s police in relation with an investigation after deux newborns were found at their place of residence in Sorae village, the French community in Seoul. We have requested to France to request their current whereabouts, in order to persuade them to return to Seoul as soon as possible, and provide us with an explanation, the Korean Embassy in France said.

The work of the detectives started on July 18, when a French expatriate, who’d just come back to Seoul, reported a macabre discovery. He explained that he found that morning two newborns, parts of the umbilical cord still attached, wrapped in plastic bags, in a freezer, situated on his veranda.

DNA tests positive
According to The Korea Times, the man was unable to explain to the police the presence of these babies in his home — and denied any relationship with them. Released on July 26, he was then allowed to go back to France and resume his vacation. while the investigation went on. That was until a new element stirred things.
Last week, a series of DNA tests done at the National Institute for Scientifical Investigation established that the man was indeed the father of these babies — which appear not to be twins. It would also appear that they have been dead for over a year. These new elements led the Korean police to ask the French Embassy in Seoul to convince the couple to come back to Seoul to answer more questions. But this time, the French couple stated that they would only go back at the end of their holidays, end of August.
Korean authorities have tried repeatedly to convince the French couple, hoping they could speed up the investigation. They demand to bring in the French woman as a suspect. French judges, meanwhile, play for time. Orléans’ DA explains that We haven’t received so far any request for judicial help. Nothing indicates that charges have been brought against these people. However, should charges be brought up, and the French couple refused to return to Korea, French judges could declare themselves competent to try this case. While France and Korea have signed in 1995 a mutual judicial assistance treaty, Paris doesn’t make it a habbit to extradite its citizens.

Korea, Courjault, Frozen Babies