The Hindu : Probe ordered into Diana death

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 07, 2004

International

International

Probe ordered into Diana death

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON JAN. 6. An inquest into Princess Diana's death opened here today on a dramatic note with the royal coroner, Michael Burgess, ordering a police inquiry into `speculation' that the car crash in which she and her boy friend, Dodi Fayed, were killed in Paris six years ago was more than a `straightforward' accident.

The inquiry, to be conducted by the chief of the metropolitan police, John Stevens, was announced amid a fresh wave of conspiracy theories after a newspaper this morning named Prince Charles as the person who, Diana alleged, was behind a `conspiracy'' to cause a car accident. She made the allegation in a letter which is included in a book published recently by her former butler, Paul Burrell.

The name of the person has been blanked out in the book but the Daily Mirror claimed that it was Prince Charles. Its editor, Piers Morgan, said his two senior colleagues had seen the original letter. He defended the decision to reveal the identity on the ground that since Mr. Burrell had offered to hand over the letter to the inquest, the name would have `inevitably' become public.

The letter, as appears in the book, reads: ".......is planning an `accident' in my car...'' It was written 10 months before the Paris car crash in August 1997 and has been seized by Mohammed Al-Fayed, father of Dodi, who has consistently alleged that there was a conspiracy by British intelligence and the royal family to assassinate the two to prevent Diana from marrying Dodi. But an exhaustive inquiry by French authorities ruled out foul play, though an unnamed French official was quoted by a British newspaper as saying recently that Diana was pregnant at the time of her death.

Mr. Fayed was present at the coroner's court this morning, but declined to talk to the media. Recently, he moved a court in Edinburgh seeking a public inquiry into the deaths.

Mr. Burrell said he was "not happy'' with the newspaper's decision and would be speaking to his "agent and lawyer''. The newspaper was reported to have paid him a huge sum for serialising his book, A Royal Duty, last year but at the time it withheld the identity of the person allegedly named by Diana. Meanwhile, the long-awaited inquest was adjourned until 2005 barely an hour after it opened with a statement by Mr. Burgess explaining the purpose and scope of the inquiry. He made clear that the intention of the inquest was not to apportion blame but to establish the cause of the death. Later in the day, he opened a separate inquest into Dodi's death.

The inquest will plough through some 6,000 pages of documents relating to the French inquiry.

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