Al-Fayed sues CBS over Diana pictures

Published on 27/04/2004 01:00

MOHAMED al-Fayed has launched a legal action against CBS after the American TV network aired pictures of Diana, Princess of Wales, lying fatally wounded in the wreckage of her Paris car crash.

The images, broadcast on Sunday, outraged the Harrods boss, whose son Dodi was also killed in the 1997 tragedy.

A spokesman for Mr al-Fayed said last night that the multi-millionaire businessman tried to have the show cancelled hours before it was broadcast.

But there was too little time to take the matter to court at the eleventh hour last week, he said. Instead, Mr al-Fayed instructed his American lawyers to "take whatever legal action they could" against CBS.

Mr al-Fayed’s spokesman, Chester Stern, said: "In the end, any injunction would have depended on CBS fielding a lawyer and they could not field a lawyer with two hours of the show going on air.

"Mr al-Fayed then instructed his lawyers to take whatever legal action they could. Mohamed al-Fayed has taken legal action against CBS over the use of these pictures."

Mr al-Fayed’s lawyer in Los Angeles, Fred Gaines, was not immediately available to detail the precise action being taken against CBS. A spokeswoman for CBS was unable to comment on the legal action.

The grainy black and white photocopies, from a French investigation report, showed Diana being treated by a doctor as she lay slumped in the back of her crashed car. This was the first time photographs of Diana, taken moments after the 1997 car crash in Paris, have been shown in public.

The images, shown for ten seconds, were obtained by CBS’s 48 Hours Investigates programme and were part of a confidential 4,000-page accident report compiled by French investigators.

The photographs caused outrage. Diana’s family said they were "shocked and sickened" by the showing of the pictures.