The parents of Henri Paul, the French chauffeur blamed for the car crash which killed Britain's Princess Diana, told BBC radio today they were taking legal action in a bid to clear their son's name.
A French inquiry into the crash in 1997 found Paul was drunk and driving at high speed.
But Mr Jean and Gisele Paul said they believed a blood sample taken at the time of the accident was not their son's.
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 told the BBC they were taking legal action to try to force the French authorities to release the blood for an independent DNA test.
They added they would accept the result of an independent test if it proved that the sample came from their son.
Diana, who was divorced from Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne, was killed on August 31st, 1997 when her Mercedes car crashed at high speed in central Paris.
Henri Paul and Diana's lover, Dodi Al Fayed, also died. Bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones was the only survivor. He suffered severe injuries.
Paul's parents said that levels of carbon monoxide found in the blood sample said to be his 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 was drinking. We would have seen it.
AFP