Diana inquest opens

LONDON – An inquest into the death of Princess Diana opened yesterday, 10 years after she was killed in a Paris car crash, with her lover’s father convinced that the British royal family ordered the killing.

Mohamed al-Fayed, whose son Dodi died in the crash after a much-publicised summer romance with the ‘people’s princess’, alleges the couple were killed on the orders of Queen Elizabeth’s husband, Diana’s former father-in-law. Al-Fayed, owner of London’s luxury Harrods store, fought a long legal battle to have the inquest heard by a judge and jury.London’s High Court is expected to spend up to six months deciding if her death was an accident.”Mohamed al-Fayed has maintained throughout that the crash was not an accident, but murder in furtherance of a conspiracy by the Establishment, in particular his Royal Highness Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, who used the security services to carry it out,” judge Lord Justice Scott Baker said.Major investigations by French and British police have concluded the deaths were a tragic accident caused by a speeding chauffeur, who was found to be drunk.Diana, 36, Dodi al-Fayed, 42, and chauffeur Henri Paul were all killed when their Mercedes car crashed in a road tunnel as they sped away from the Ritz Hotel in Paris, pursued by paparazzi on motorbikes.Britain had to wait for the French legal process to end and then for the British police investigation to run its course before the inquests into Diana’s and Fayed’s deaths could begin.By the time it ends, the laborious legal process may have cost British taxpayers up to $20,42 million.Under British law, an inquest is needed to determine the cause of death when someone dies unnaturally.Outlining the purpose of the inquiries, Scott Baker told the jury of six women and five men that their mission was a ‘search for the truth’ about the August 31, 1997 crash.”None of you would for a moment have thought that over 10 years later you might be on a jury investigating the events relating that tragic August night,” Scott Baker said.He told the jury to ignore the ‘literally millions’ of words written about the crash in books and newspapers, much of which had shown a “disregard for the facts”.”This is a subject upon which most members of the British public and many overseas appear to have a view often based on no evidence at all, or at best on only part of the picture,” he said.Up to 140 reporters from around the world have been accredited to attend the court, and the jury have been promised police protection from the glare of media publicity.Nampa-ReutersAl-Fayed, owner of London’s luxury Harrods store, fought a long legal battle to have the inquest heard by a judge and jury.London’s High Court is expected to spend up to six months deciding if her death was an accident.”Mohamed al-Fayed has maintained throughout that the crash was not an accident, but murder in furtherance of a conspiracy by the Establishment, in particular his Royal Highness Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, who used the security services to carry it out,” judge Lord Justice Scott Baker said.Major investigations by French and British police have concluded the deaths were a tragic accident caused by a speeding chauffeur, who was found to be drunk.Diana, 36, Dodi al-Fayed, 42, and chauffeur Henri Paul were all killed when their Mercedes car crashed in a road tunnel as they sped away from the Ritz Hotel in Paris, pursued by paparazzi on motorbikes.Britain had to wait for the French legal process to end and then for the British police investigation to run its course before the inquests into Diana’s and Fayed’s deaths could begin.By the time it ends, the laborious legal process may have cost British taxpayers up to $20,42 million.Under British law, an inquest is needed to determine the cause of death when someone dies unnaturally.Outlining the purpose of the inquiries, Scott Baker told the jury of six women and five men that their mission was a ‘search for the truth’ about the August 31, 1997 crash.”None of you would for a moment have thought that over 10 years later you might be on a jury investigating the events relating that tragic August night,” Scott Baker said.He told the jury to ignore the ‘literally millions’ of words written about the crash in books and newspapers, much of which had shown a “disregard for the facts”.”This is a subject upon which most members of the British public and many overseas appear to have a view often based on no evidence at all, or at best on only part of the picture,” he said.Up to 140 reporters from around the world have been accredited to attend the court, and the jury have been promised police protection from the glare of media publicity.Nampa-Reuters