French court orders paternity tests over Dati’s daughter

AFP/Paris

A French court has ordered a hotel and casino tycoon to take a paternity test to determine whether he is the father of former justice minister Rachida Dati’s daughter.

Dati, 46, a glamorous protégé of former president Nicolas Sarkozy, took a case against Dominique Desseigne to try to make him accept paternity in the latest case to cast light on the hitherto taboo sexual antics of France’s political elite.

Desseigne, 68, the boss of the Lucien Barriere casino, hotel and restaurant group, has confirmed he had a fling with Dati but has refused to take a paternity test that would establish if he is the father of three-year-old Zohra.

Under French law, a court cannot force Desseigne to take the test but can interpret a refusal as confirming he is the father and thus potentially liable to support the child financially.

His lawyer said after yesterday’s ruling that Desseigne continued to deny paternity and was considering whether he would take the test.

According to a report last month in Le Monde, the lawyer has argued that his client could not have been the father and to highlight the fact that Dati had seven other lovers around the time of the conception.

They allegedly included a television presenter, a government minister, a company chairman, a Spanish prime minister, one of Sarkozy’s brothers and a former attorney-general of an Arabian Gulf nation.