Di's driver Henri Paul not drunk: Parents

London, Feb 5 : Princess Diana's chauffer Henri Paul's parents have claimed that their son was not drunk on the night the former was killed in a fatal car crash in Paris in Aug 1997.

Testifying at the inquest into the death of Diana and her lover, Dodi Al Fayed, Jean and Giselle Paul asserted that the French authorities refused their requests for independent tests on Henri's blood to prove if he was drunk.

Henri, the acting head of security at the Ritz Hotel in Paris, was driving the Mercedes, which crashed in the Alma Tunnel in the early hours of August 31, 1997 and killed him, Diana, and Dodi.

During the proceedings Jean and Giselle Paul were asked about reports that their son had been drunk at the time of the car crash, but they replied "it was certainly wrong".

The chauffeur's parents also claimed that they had requested an independent blood test to prove the allegations false but that they were refused.

"They were always refused," the couple said answering a question over the requests.

Searches of their son's flat in Paris, after the crash, by French police were apparently undertaken without notification as well, they told the London hearing.

"We were not notified. Nobody never notified us," the Telegraph quoted them, as saying.

Regarding suggestions that Henri Paul was working for the British Security Services, the couple again denied the accusation claiming it was "totally wrong".

ANI