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Al-Fayed presses for new Diana inquiry
SUE LEEMAN
ASSOCIATED PRESS
LONDON - There are many reasons to doubt the official verdict that the 1997 Paris car crash that killed Diana and her friend Dodi Fayed was an accident, lawyers representing Fayed's billionaire father Mohamed Al-Fayed said today.
Al-Fayed is appealing a previous decision by Scotland's Lord Advocate, Lord Drummond-Young, who refused his application for an inquiry on grounds the crash happened outside Scottish jurisdiction.
The Egyptian-born owner of Harrods department store in London maintains the crash was plotted by people who disapproved of Diana dating his son.
In his opening remarks Richard Keen, lawyer for Al-Fayed, told the Court of Session in Edinburgh that he would show his client had grounds to believe that his son was murdered and was therefore entitled under the European Convention on Human Rights to an ``effective official investigation."
In 2002, France's highest court dropped manslaughter charges against photographers who were chasing the couple's car when it crashed. A five-year investigation concluded that the driver Henri Paul, who was also killed, had been drinking and was speeding.
But Keen said there were "numerous matters which cast material doubt" on the French findings.
"In the immediate aftermath of the crash, French authorities reported to authorities in the United Kingdom, through Scotland Yard (London's police force), that the circumstances of the crash were regarded as suspicious," he said.
"Before any substantive investigation, the senior police officer responsible for investigating the crash ... determined that it was an accident attributable to the driver of the Mercedes (Henri Paul), who it was then alleged, was drunk and indeed an alcoholic."
This meant that certain issues, including the involvement of other vehicles, were not being explored properly by the investigators, he said.
Reed said the French magistrate who investigated the crash, Herve Stephan, did not have a "general remit" to investigate why or how Dodi and Diana were killed.
Instead the magistrate's investigation centred on "whether or not certain press photographers might have been implicated in an accident or guilty of a failure to assist persons in danger," Keen said.
"Even within the scope of that investigation it must be observed that Judge Stephan's conduct was called into question by the French judicial authorities," he added.
This included Stephan's alleged habit of issuing instructions to police investigators and then countermanding them, Reed said.
The hearing is expected to last for five days.
http://www.torontostar.com/NASApp/c...605&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968705899037
SUE LEEMAN
ASSOCIATED PRESS
LONDON - There are many reasons to doubt the official verdict that the 1997 Paris car crash that killed Diana and her friend Dodi Fayed was an accident, lawyers representing Fayed's billionaire father Mohamed Al-Fayed said today.
Al-Fayed is appealing a previous decision by Scotland's Lord Advocate, Lord Drummond-Young, who refused his application for an inquiry on grounds the crash happened outside Scottish jurisdiction.
The Egyptian-born owner of Harrods department store in London maintains the crash was plotted by people who disapproved of Diana dating his son.
In his opening remarks Richard Keen, lawyer for Al-Fayed, told the Court of Session in Edinburgh that he would show his client had grounds to believe that his son was murdered and was therefore entitled under the European Convention on Human Rights to an ``effective official investigation."
In 2002, France's highest court dropped manslaughter charges against photographers who were chasing the couple's car when it crashed. A five-year investigation concluded that the driver Henri Paul, who was also killed, had been drinking and was speeding.
But Keen said there were "numerous matters which cast material doubt" on the French findings.
"In the immediate aftermath of the crash, French authorities reported to authorities in the United Kingdom, through Scotland Yard (London's police force), that the circumstances of the crash were regarded as suspicious," he said.
"Before any substantive investigation, the senior police officer responsible for investigating the crash ... determined that it was an accident attributable to the driver of the Mercedes (Henri Paul), who it was then alleged, was drunk and indeed an alcoholic."
This meant that certain issues, including the involvement of other vehicles, were not being explored properly by the investigators, he said.
Reed said the French magistrate who investigated the crash, Herve Stephan, did not have a "general remit" to investigate why or how Dodi and Diana were killed.
Instead the magistrate's investigation centred on "whether or not certain press photographers might have been implicated in an accident or guilty of a failure to assist persons in danger," Keen said.
"Even within the scope of that investigation it must be observed that Judge Stephan's conduct was called into question by the French judicial authorities," he added.
This included Stephan's alleged habit of issuing instructions to police investigators and then countermanding them, Reed said.
The hearing is expected to last for five days.
http://www.torontostar.com/NASApp/c...605&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968705899037
