Princess Diana 'was Not Murdered', says Report
'Pakistan Times' UK Bureau

LONDON (UK): The death of Princess Diana in a car crash in 1997 was an accident and not a conspiracy, an inquiry has concluded.

Former Met chief Lord Stevens said there was no murder, no conspiracy and no cover-up.

He rejected allegations by Mohammed Al Fayed, father of Diana's boyfriend Dodi, who was also killed in the crash, that the pair had been murdered by British secret agents.

Harrods owner Mr Al Fayed has accused the Royal Family, and in particular the Duke of Edinburgh, of ordering their assassination in order to prevent them marrying.

But Lord Stevens said the claims were "unfounded".

He also said there was no evidence that Diana and Dodi were engaged or that the Princess was pregnant.

Interviews conducted with those close to the Princess, including Prince William, suggested she had given no indication of any wish to marry, Lord Stevens said.

The inquiry, which began in January 2004, has cost an estimated £2.5m.

Lord Stevens told a press conference: "I'm satisfied that no attempt has been made to hold back information and we are confident that the allegations made are unfounded."

He pointed to the role of paparazzi photographers, who were chasing the Princess's car through Paris, in the crash. He said the pair had changed their travel plans in order to try to lose them.

Their car was travelling at twice the legal speed limit when it crashed. Chauffeur Henri Paul, who was also killed in the crash, had been drinking. His alcohol level was twice the British legal limit.

William and Harry

Princes William and Harry hope that the "conclusive findings" of Thursday's report into the death of their mother Princess Diana will end speculation about the case, aides said.

"Prince William and Prince Harry have received a copy of the report from Lord Stevens personally," said a statement by Clarence House, residence of the princes and their father Prince Charles.

"They are extremely grateful to Lord Stevens and his team for the thoroughness and professionalism they have shown during their investigation, and trust that these conclusive findings will end the speculation surrounding the death of their mother Diana, Princess of Wales."

Clarence House issued the remarks hours after Lord John Stevens published a report confirming a French probe that the fatal Paris car crash was an accident.

Dodi's Father Reax

A long-awaited British report into the death of Princess Diana and her boyfriend Dodi al-Fayed in a Paris car crash was a cover up, a spokesman for Dodi's father Mohammed al-Fayed said Thursday.

"We believe it is all part of a scheme to close down the inquiry and to cover up the truth," said Michael Cole, at a press conference responding to the release of the 800-page report.

Lord Stevens' report was based in part on evidence gathered and interviews carried out by French investigators, who published their own report into the 1997 crash in 1999.

"The French interviews were perfunctory in the extreme and thoroughly unsatisfactory," he said.

Fleeing paparazzi photographers, Diana, 36, her boyfriend Dodi, 42, and their chauffeur Henri Paul, 41, were killed in a car crash in a Paris underpass in the early hours of August 31, 1997.

A French investigation subsequently concluded that the driver was well over the drink-drive limit and had also been taking drugs, and that the crash was an accident.

The British report, the product of three years of investigation, also concluded that the driver was drunk, while also rejecting a suggestion that Diana was pregnant and planning to marry Dodi al-Fayed.

In-depth

A sweeping police inquiry on Thursday ruled out a murder conspiracy in Princess Diana's death, saying the chauffeur in the 1997 car crash was drunk and driving at a high speed to elude pursuing photographers.

The report also said Diana was not pregnant at the time of the crash in Paris, nor was she about to marry her boyfriend Dodi Fayed, who was also killed.

Lord John Stevens, the former chief of the Metropolitan Police who oversaw the investigation, said police took the unusual step of publishing more than 800 pages of the three-year, $7.3 million inquiry's findings to help end the speculation that has swirled since Diana's death.

"Our conclusion is that, on all the evidence available at this time, there was no conspiracy to murder any of the occupants of the car. This was a tragic accident," Stevens said.

"There was no conspiracy, and no cover-up," he added.

Stevens said he hoped the report, which largely confirmed previous findings by French investigators, would "help bring closure to all who continue to mourn." The front page of London's Evening Standard dubbed his report "The Diana Verdict."

Diana, 36, and Fayed, 42, were killed along with chauffeur Henri Paul when their Mercedes crashed in the Pont d'Alma tunnel in Paris on Aug. 31, 1997. The only survivor, bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones, was badly hurt.

The inquiry said samples taken from Paul showed his blood-alcohol level was twice the British legal limit.

"We know that the car traveled at excessive speed during the final part of the journey while being followed by the paparazzi," Stevens said. "We can say with certainty that the car hit the curb just before the 13th pillar of the central reservation in the Alma underpass at a speed of 61 to 63 mph."

Fayed's father, Mohammed al Fayed, rejected the report, calling it "garbage."

The establishment "can cover up anything and they think that the public can be duped," al Fayed, owner of Harrods department store, said at a news conference after the report was released.

Al Fayed said Diana "conveyed to me all her suffering, all the devastation of threats she have in her life in the last 20 years she was living in the family environment."

When contacted by investigators, "Philip saw no reason to comment on any of these claims," the report said.

The report rejected al Fayed's claims that Diana was pregnant with his son's child and intended to marry him.

"We are certain that the Princess of Wales was not pregnant at the time of her death," Stevens said. "Our conclusions were strengthened by forensic tests carried out on blood recovered from the Mercedes car.

"From the evidence of her close friends and associates, she was not engaged and not about to get engaged," Stevens said.

Stevens said he had interviewed Prince Charles, Diana's former husband, and communicated with Philip, Charles' father, and Prince William, Diana's elder son.

"I have seen nothing that would justify further inquiries with any member of the royal family," he said.

Diana's sons endorsed the findings. Princes William and Harry "trust that these conclusive findings will end the speculation surrounding the death of their mother Diana, Princess of Wales," according to a statement from Clarence House, their father's office.

Earl Spencer, Diana's brother, and her sisters Lady Sarah McCorquodale and Lady Jane Fellowes, also supported Stevens' findings.

The investigation also found no evidence that the British Secret Service was conducting surveillance on the princess, the report said.

The publication of the report will allow an inquest into Diana's death to get under way. The inquest, convened and then swiftly adjourned in 2004, is due to resume formally next year under a retired senior judge, Baroness Elizabeth Butler-Sloss.

Preliminary hearings will be held Jan. 8-9.●