This time the Figaro article is way better written than its predecessors [due to the fact that the writer is another person who seems to have done some field work, not just parse the Korea Times], and the writer sems to have her facts a little straighter. So the awkward style of the translation and any mistakes you may spot are all mine.

Frozen babies: South Korea raptured by this case

JUSTICE South Korean authorities are hard at work translating the elements of the case in order to send them to France

Seoul investigators will need a lot of imagination power in order to solve what they now call the “frozen babies” mystery. The newborns, both boys, were discovered in the freezer of a French family, on July 23. DNA tests have identified Jean-Louis Courjault as the father of the babies. Since, Korean authorities have been hard at work translating the elements of the case in order to request officially the assistance of the French Justice Department.
The story is even more sordid than it seemed at first: not only were the babies put in the freezer at least 8 months ago, they’re not twins. They were both born at the end of gestation, and weighted around 3 kilos [~7 pounds] each. Which means that there was a period of at least 9 months between the babies’ births. Moreover, Jean-Louis Courjault’s wife, aged 39, underwent hysterectomy in December 2003, which would mean that the babies were born before that date.

The babies would have been born in-house
According to the investigators, it is highly probable that the babies were born at the couple’s residence. A towel, used to wrap one of the babies, and the plastic bages used to wrap them up, are identical to those used there. Also, the babies still had their umbilical cord and traces of meconium – a newborn’s first feces – were found on their bodies. Traces of blood were also found in the bathroom and the veranda where the freezer was located. And the police didn’t find any sign of forced entry. At first, investigators had suspected the philipina maid, and a friend of the family, who both possessed a kycard, necessary to unlock the doors [dda: I believe this is incorrect: rather the keycard was for the alarm].
Everything started on July 23, when Jean-Louis Courjault reported the gory discovery in his freezer. This 40-year old French citizen was back in Seoul for a business emergency, interrupting his vacations, which he was spending with his wife and two sons, aged 9 and 11, in France. After interrogation, he was let go and could fly back to France on July 26. But when the DNA tests came back, and he was pointed out as the father, investigators regretted having let him go.
Today, Sorae village, where the couple resides, is abuzz with curiosity: I went through the directory of the French school, and I still couldn’t find who they were. [dda: I bet you did, dudine, since you prolly got nuthin’ else to do…], declares a resident of this neighbourhood, dubbed “Little France”. This French couple apparently managed to live away from the French community that surrounded them. The infrastructure for this community is quite developed there. It is not possible too be pregnant and no one notices, says the wife of an expatriate [dda: tells you how nosy these French dudines are, eh?]. In any case, the “frozen babies” affair inspires disgust, but apparently not fear in this neighbourhood. This unusual criminal case may have been above the fold material for the last three weeks in the country of the Morning Calm, nobody seems to doubt that it’s a family business gone very wrong.

Korea, Courjault, Frozen Babies

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

Crime Syndicate gets RFID Savvy

“He said that while the prisoners were initially reluctant to spill information on their boss, it was only after a long night of interrogation they proffered up the name of a man in central London.”

Night-long interrogation in Tamil Nadu. I bet it hurt.

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