Spain court rules 43-year-old man is son of Julio Iglesias

A Spanish court ruled Wednesday that Grammy award-winning singer Julio Iglesias is the biological father of a 43-year-old man after a protracted paternity battle with the star.

The judge in the case refused to admit DNA evidence obtained surreptitiously by a private detective working for the claimant and his lawyer.

But he ruled that the man's mother had provided credible details of her affair with the singer and also cited the physical resemblance between the two men.

Iglesias himself has always refused to give DNA evidence to settle the dispute.

The case was brought by Javier Sanchez Santos, the son of Portuguese former ballerina Maria Edite, who says she had a brief affair with Iglesias in 1975.

After examining the paternity suit, a judge at a court in the eastern city of Valencia "declares that Julio Iglesias is his biological father", the court said in a statement.

Edite told the court that she had a one-week affair with Iglesias in Catalonia in Spain's northeast in July 1975 and that nine months later Javier was born, said Sanchez's lawyer, Fernando Osuna.

The singer's defence team had argued that the trial should not take place since the case had already gone to court before and was dismissed. The 75-year-old singer did not attend the trial.

But Osuna had argued a new trial was justified as they had "DNA evidence" brought from the United States by a detective.

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