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Diana: `doubts' over French tests

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, JAN. 10. Conspiracy theories surrounding Princess Diana's death got a dramatic boost today after the British police were reported as having doubts about the authenticity of the blood sample which led French investigators to conclude that the car crash that killed her and her boy friend, Dodi Fayed, in Paris more than six years ago happened because their chauffeur, Henri Paul, was heavily drunk at the time.

That conclusion was reached on the basis that the blood, showing a high level of alcohol, belonged to Paul but The Times claimed today that the British police had "serious doubts'' whether the blood sample really came from the chauffeur.

"It is now feared by the authorities in London that an innocent mix-up in the laboratory or mortuary may have led to the wrong sample being tested,'' it said.

The source of the `suspicion', it said, was the presence of an `extraordinary' high level of carbon monoxide in the blood sample — "so much so that the chauffeur would have struggled to walk, let alone drive a car.'' It said one possibility was that the blood belonged to someone `poisoned' by carbon monoxide.

Questions about the blood sample have been raised consistently by Paul's family and Dodi's father, Mohamed al Fayed, but their requests for a DNA test were turned down by French authorities who insisted that the car crash in a Paris tunnel on August 31, 1997 was caused by drunken driving. Paul was found to have been "drunk and under the effect of medicine incompatible with alcohol, a state which did not enable him to maintain control of his vehicle...''

While there was no official comment from Scotland Yard, a French police inspector who played a central role in French investigation, rejected the idea. "There was no error over the blood. We are very serious people and no errors are allowed," he said.

But Paul's father, who has always maintained that his son was not drunk at the time, said The Times disclosure was "not a surprise''. "We have long known that there was sleight of hand with the blood samples,'' he said.

The Times' report comes days after the royal coroner, Michael Burgess, asked the police to launch an inquiry into speculation that the deaths of Diana and Dodi were not the result of a "straightforward road traffic accident''. The inquiry was ordered the day one newspaper named Prince Charles as the person, Diana believed, was "planning an accident in my car''. She voiced her fears in a letter 10 months before the car crash.

Prince Charles is among those likely to be questioned during the investigation.

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