SYDNEY - The Australian Foreign Minister has stepped into the bitter custody dispute over 5-year-old Manny Musu, the girl left partially paralysed by the Jakarta embassy bombing.
The dispute is intensifying over Manny, whose full name is Elisabeth Manuela Bambina Musu, who remains in intensive care in a Singapore hospital as
two men claim to be her father.
Italian bank security guard Manuel Musu, of Verona, insists Manny is his daughter and said she speaks only Italian and is an Italian citizen.
However, the federal government last night said a DNA test conducted before Manny was granted Australian citizenship on September 1, proved Norman, a Sydney police officer, was her biological father.
"I understand that a DNA test was done before the little girl took out Australian citizenship," Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told radio 2GB.
"When I raised this question with the embassy, they told me that a DNA test had, in any case, been done and the Australian was identified through the DNA test as the father of the little girl."
Manny was at the Australian Embassy on Thursday when a car bomb killed her mother, 27-year-old Maria Eva Kumalawati, and nine other people, including a suspected suicide bomber.
The pair were there to collect a new passport for Manny, who suffered head and other injuries in the blast.
Downer said it was possible to be a dual citizen under Australian law and thousands of Australian citizens also had Italian passports.
He also said possessing two passports was no proof of paternity.
Manny was yesterday brought out of an induced coma for a few hours in Singapore's Mount Elizabeth hospital.
Outside the hospital, Musu thanked Australian authorities for airlifting Manny to Singapore for specialist medical treatment.
"I would like to thank Australian authorities and the Australian High Commission in Singapore for the immediate help since the first moment of the accident in Jakarta," he said. "At that time it was the best thing to do, it was the most important thing to do."
The police officer has refused to comment.
The federal government paid for the child's flight to Singapore for treatment.
- AAP
