- More than six years after the deaths of Diana, Princess
of Wales, and Dodi Al-Fayed, the questions surrounding the Paris car crash
in which they were killed continue to grip the public imagination.
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- The Court of Session in Edinburgh became the centre of
international attention yesterday as Mohamed al-Fayed, the owner of Harrods,
pursued his search for the truth about how, or why, his son and Diana died.
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- "I have been fighting for six years, but I can see
the light and justice can be done. What I am doing is for the nation and
for the ordinary people ... Eighty-five per cent believe Diana was murdered
with my son."
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- The court heard Mr Fayed's counsel contend that he had
"substantial grounds" for fearing that the British security services
were implicated. The crash, it was claimed, had "striking similarities"
to an earlier MI6 plot to remove Slobodan Milosevic, then president of
Serbia.
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- Colin Boyd, QC, the Lord Advocate, has refused an inquiry
into the crash, but Mr Fayed maintains that as a resident of Scotland,
at Balnagown Castle, Kildary, Easter Ross, he is entitled to secure his
rights under the tenets of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
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- Mr Fayed argues there should be an effective, official
inquiry when someone appears to have been killed as a result of the use
of force and is asking Lord Drummond Young to set aside the Lord Advocate's
decision as incompatible with the ECHR.
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- Richard Keen, QC, for Mr Fayed, said that the official
line from the French police after the crash in a tunnel in Paris in the
early hours of 31 August, 1997, was that it had been an accident caused
by Henri Paul, assistant head of security at the Ritz hotel and the driver
of the Mercedes the couple died in. The French police said Mr Paul was
drunk and on anti-depressants at the time of the crash. Mr Paul also died
in the incident.
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- "He [Mr Paul] had been in the Ritz Hotel for two
hours before he left and is recalled by all those who spoke with him as
being entirely sober," said Mr Keen. He said British and American
security services were monitoring Diana and Dodi in the month leading up
to their deaths and that Henri Paul may have been an MI6 informant.
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- And on the night of the crash Mr Paul had taken a "highly
unusual route" from the Ritz to Dodi's apartment.
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- The QC said pieces of a broken tail-light, from a white
Fiat Uno, had been found at the scene of the crash, and there were marks
on the bumper of the Mercedes.
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- Inquiries had "led to the suggestion" that
the driver of the Fiat might have been James Andanson, a member of the
paparazzi who had been pursuing the couple that summer, although he denied
being in Paris that night. In 2000, Mr Andanson's body was found. It was
initially treated as murder, but then was declared to have been suicide.
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- Mr Keen said there had been reports of a flash of light
in the tunnel, which would have blinded a driver.
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- A former MI6 agent had said the circumstances bore "striking
similarities" to a plan in 1992 to assassinate Milosevic. The agent
had also revealed that MI6 had an informant on the security staff at the
Ritz Hotel. After the crash, it was learned that Mr Paul had 13 bank accounts
containing more than a million francs.
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- "It might suggest he had at least some kind of part-time
job," said Mr Keen.
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- Diana had expressed fears for her safety, and Mr Keen
added: "If her fears had only one ounce of truth in October 1996,
one is entitled to ask how much greater they may have been in August 1997
when the general anticipation was that a person denigrated by sections
of the establishment was about to become stepfather to the future king,"
said Mr Keen.
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- Mr Keen said Diana and Princes William and Harry were
being monitored from around 10 July, 1997, when they arrived at the Fayed
estate in St Tropez in the south of France.
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- After the couple arrived at Beauvais airport on August
30, Mr Keen told the court, "as a matter of practice French security
reported the arrival of the Princess to the UK embassy assuming they were
not aware of it.
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- Mr Keen added that the US National Security Agency has
confirmed the Princess was the subject of monitoring at the time of the
crash.
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- The hearing is expected to last several days, and the
judge will issue his ruling later.
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- ©2003 Scotsman.com
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- http://www.news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=1377832003
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