Diana driver not drunk, his parents tell court

By Paul Majendie

LONDON (Reuters) - The parents of French chauffeur Henri Paul said on Monday they were certain their son was not drunk at the wheel of the car in which he drove Princess Diana on her fatal final journey.

Speaking by video link to a London inquest into the deaths of Diana and her lover Dodi al-Fayed, the elderly couple also said French authorities had refused to grant their request for independent tests on blood samples taken after the crash.

Diana and Dodi were killed along with Henri Paul in August 1997, when the Mercedes limousine he was driving crashed at high speed in a Paris road tunnel while it was being pursued by paparazzi.

French and British police investigations concluded that Paul was drunk but experts at the London inquest into the deaths of Diana and Dodi have questioned the origin of blood samples said to have been taken from him.

Questioned about reports that their son had been drunk at the time of the crash and was an alcoholic, Jean and Giselle Paul answered in unison: "It was certainly wrong."

"The driver was not drunk," Jean Paul told the court. The couple said they had never seen their son drunk.

Asked if they were still waiting for the French authorities to allow an independent analysis of the blood samples, they answered: "Yes."

The couple, speaking through an interpreter, said French police had, without telling them, conducted a search of their son's Paris apartment 10 days after the crash. "We were not notified," they said.