His claims discredited, but al-Fayed still cries murder

Published on Monday 7 April 2008 23:02

ONLY a few hours after the death of his son Dodi and Diana, Princess of Wales, a grief-stricken Mohamed al-Fayed declared: "It is not an accident, it is an assassination."

It was a belief he has held ever since, and even as the inquest opened into their deaths six months ago, he was again declaring to the world that "justice" would be done and he would prove the "murder" was an establishment conspiracy.

But Mr Fayed's hopes of a verdict to prove his claims were in tatters last night.

Instead, the inquest concluded that the bereaved father had tried to cover up the drunk-driving of one of his own staff, who was ultimately partly to blame for the deaths.

While the jury found that Dodi and Diana were unlawfully killed, they decided that this was in the context of an accident.

And it emerged that Mr Fayed's own legal team had accepted there was no evidence to support his theories.

Lawyers admitted there was no direct evidence to support claims that the Duke of Edinburgh or MI6 had been involved in any murder conspiracy.

Michael Mansfield, the senior QC appointed by Mr Fayed, conceded that the white Fiat Uno, which had reportedly been in the Paris tunnel at the time the crash happened, "was not the cause of any loss of control" of the Mercedes carrying the princess and Dodi.

Mr Fayed's legal team also said there was no evidence to support the assertion that Diana had been illegally embalmed to cover up a pregnancy.

The concessions came several weeks ago but were not reported until now because no jurors or reporters had been present in the final week of submissions.

For a decade, Mr Fayed had tried to implicate the Royal Family. Last night, after hearing his claims dismissed, he left the court with a face like thunder, but saying: "The most important thing is it is murder."

A spokeswoman for the Egyptian-born businessman said he was "disappointed" at the verdicts.

The inquest heard repeated allegations that Mr Fayed and his aides had actively sought to influence what came out about the crash.

During his infamous day in court in February, Mr Fayed had implicated a bewildering array of people into the "murder" of his son: the Prince of Wales; former prime minister Tony Blair; two former commissioners of the Metropolitan Police; Lord Fellowes, the Queen's former private secretary; and Lord Jay, the former British ambassador to Paris.

Even Diana's elder sister, Lady Sarah McCorquodale, had been part of the cover-up, according to Mr Fayed.

But at the end of the hearing, the coroner, Lord Justice Scott Baker, openly voiced suggestions of "closing ranks" at the Fayed-owned Ritz Hotel in Paris over the question of whether they knew Henri Paul was drinking on the night of the accident.

There were also suggestions that key witnesses had been pressured to back the conspiracy theories, while there was an alleged attempt to influence even what police were told.

The allegations were strenuously denied.

However, one of Mr Fayed's former bodyguards accused the Harrods boss of being responsible for the crash.

In an interview on ITV News last night, Kes Wingfield claimed he repeatedly raised concerns that the couple did not have enough protection, but Mr Fayed ignored him.

Despite the revelations, Mr Fayed can still go back to the High Court in London if he does not accept the verdicts.

He also said he believed that Prince Philip and the Queen held "valuable evidence" that only they knew.