Dati baby father may be top Qatari lawyer

After a guessing game that has lasted months, it seems the French may finally have an answer to the question: Who is the father of Zohra, the country’s most famous baby? Zohra is the daughter of the out-going Justice Minister Rachida Dati, who has steadfastly refused to tell anyone the name of the father.

Among the suspects have been the French TV host Jacques 'Arthur' Essebag, hotel tycoon Dominique Desseigne and former Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar. All have denied being the father, as have former national rugby coach Bernard Laporte and president Nicolas Sarkozy’s brother, Francois.

Now a book titled Belle-Amie (Beautiful Friend), written by two French journalists Michael Darmon and Yves Derai, claims the father is Ali Bin Fetais al-Marri, Qatar's attorney general. While neither Dati nor al-Marri have responded to the book's claim, Dati is known to have travelled to Qatar frequently in recent months and has told the press that "the daddy travels a lot".

Baby Zohra is renowned not only for the mystery surrounding her father: her birth was the cause of considerable controversy in France when Dati chose to return to work within five days, rather than taking advantage of the country’s maternity leave rights. Dati, it turned out, rushed back to the Justice Ministry because she feared she was about to lose her job following a public falling-out with France’s judiciary.

She needn't have bothered: Sarkozy sacked her anyway. She will leave the government after the June elections for the European Parliament, in which the President, once her greatest fan, has arranged a plum seat in recompense. ·