Parents of Diana Crash Driver Sue to Clear His Name
Jean and Gisele Paul filed a civil suit for "false expert evaluation", alleging that lab analysis of the alcohol level in their son's blood at the time of the crash was inaccurate, attorney Francois Meyer said.
"Mr. and Mrs. Paul have filed a complaint and we're waiting for the courts to do their job, because there's something wrong with the fact that they've not been given the necessary explanations about their son's death," Meyer said.
A French inquiry into the 1997 crash found Paul was drunk and driving at high speed, but his parents told BBC radio they believed a blood sample taken at the time of the accident did not come from their son, AFP reported.
They suggested the blood could have come from one of dozens of other bodies held at a Paris morgue on the night of the crash after samples became muddled.
The couple said they were taking legal action to try to force French authorities to release the blood for an independent DNA test, adding they would accept the test results if it proved the sample came from their son.
Diana, who was divorced from Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne, was killed on August 31, 1997, when the Mercedes in which she was travelling crashed at high speed in central Paris.
Henri Poul and Diana's lover, Dodi al-Fayed, also died.
bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones, the only survivor, suffered severe injuries.
Paul's parents said that levels of carbon monoxide found in his supposed blood sample would incapacitate an adult, and that their son would have been unable to walk, let alone drive a car.
Speaking in French, the chauffeur's mother said: "It's easy to attack a dead man. We would have known if he were drinking. We would have seen it. "On August 28, he passed his medical exam for his pilot's license. Everything was fine. Three days later he was labeled alcoholic." Paul's father added: "Historically, the impression left is that our son was Princess Diana's killer. It is false."