Date:01/04/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/04/01/stories/2008040160221300.htm

International

No foul play in Diana death

Hasan Suroor

LONDON: It cost an estimated £7 million, heard hundreds of witnesses, and dominated headlines around the world. But after nearly six months of hype, the word on Monday was that the inquest into the deaths of Princess Diana and her boyfriend Dodi Al Fayed had nothing to add to what was already known.

The coroner confirmed the findings of previous investigations that the car crash in which the couple was killed was simply an accident, and that no foul play was involved.

Summing up the evidence for the jury, Lord Justice Scott Baker rejected all conspiracy theories, notably the allegation of Dodi’s father Mohammed Al Fayed that the car crash in a Paris tunnel in August 1997 was engineered by British intelligence agencies at the behest of the royal family which did not want Diana to marry a Muslim.

Lord Baker said there was no evidence to back the allegations and Mr. Al Fayed’s theories about the crash were “so demonstrably without foundation” that even his lawyer was no longer pursuing them.

“They are not being pursued because there is not a shred of evidence to support them. Foremost among them is the proposition that Diana was assassinated by the secret intelligence service (MI6) on the orders of the Duke of Edinburgh. There is no evidence that the Duke of Edinburgh ordered Diana’s execution, and there is no evidence that the secret intelligence service or any other Government agency organised it.” Lord Baker, however, remarked that those who believed in conspiracy theories would continue to believe in them .