Ex-Belgian King may face daily fine over paternity test

Brussels: The former King of Belgium could face a fine of 5,000 euros ($5,665) a day if he continues to refuse a paternity test after an artist and member of the country’s nobility won a court’s backing when she claimed to be the ex- monarch’s illegitimate daughter, the media reported on Friday. Delphine Boel had long claimed that she was former Belgian King Albert II’s daughter through a relationship he had with her mother, Belgian aristocrat Baroness Sybille de Selys Longchamps.

In November, after a five-year legal battle, a court agreed with Delphine Boel, giving Albert three months to provide a DNA sample to settle the question of paternity. A previous test had confirmed that Jacques Boel, her mother’s husband, was not the biological father, Efe news reported. The court ruled that DNA samples belonging to Albert and Selys Longchamps, known former lover of the king, would have to be analyzed and compared. Albert’s lawyers appealed the ruling to the Court of Cassation, Belgium’s main court of last resort. Boel’s paternity lawsuit against Albert could not go forward until 2013, when the 84-year-old monarch abdicated. A new hearing is now set to take place on February 14, in which the defence said it would demand the former king be fined 5,000 euros for every day he continues to fail to undergo the paternity test. (IANS)

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