A court has ordered that DNA tests be carried out on the remains of Tumas Fenech after a prisoner claimed that he is the late businessman’s illegitimate son.

TVM reported that prisoner Victor Buttigieg filed a case before the Family Court in 2013 claiming that Fenech was his father, and requesting that DNA tests are carried out to confirm this and to have Fenech’s name on his birth certificate.

The courts have now appointed forensic experts Mario Scerri and Marisa Cassar to examine Fenech’s remains and carry out the necessary tests to establish whether Buttigieg’s claims are true.

Fenech passed away in 1999 and his remains have since been moved from his grave, a court heard some months ago.

Buttigieg is currently serving a drugs sentence at the Kordin Correctional Facility, and has been in an out of prison for the best part of 25 years in connection with theft and drugs sentences.

He was first imprisoned in 1999 over a theft on an eight month sentence, which was later reduced by two months.  He was again imprisoned in 2005 for two years on heroin possession charges, before being imprisoned on the same charge in 2015 – this time for six years.