Summing up six months of evidence given at the inquest into the death of Diana, Prince of Wales, on Monday, the coroner dismissed Mohamed Al-Fayed's claims there was a plot to kill the late royal. The Princess died in a car crash in Paris in 1997 along with Mr Al-Fayed's son Dodi.
After listening to more than 250 witnesses Lord Justice Scott Baker addressed the conspiracy plot claims, saying: "They are not being pursued because there is not a shred of evidence to support them."
"There is no evidence that the Duke of Edinburgh ordered Diana's execution, and there is no evidence that the security intelligence services or any other government agency organised it," Justice Scott Baker emphasised.
He went on to instruct the jury that it cannot return a verdict that the Princess and Dodi were unlawfully killed as part of any kind of conspiracy. Instead, jury members were told there were five verdicts possible: an open verdict; accidental death; gross negligence on the part of the paparazzi; gross negligence on the part of the driver, Henri Paul; or a combination of both paparazzi and Henri Paul being negligent.
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
