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LONDON—A
coroner’s jury ruled Monday that Princess Diana
and boyfriend Dodi Fayed were unlawfully killed through
the reckless actions of their driver and paparazzi in
1997.
The jury
had been told a verdict of unlawful killing would mean
they believed the reckless behavior of the driver and
paparazzi amounted to manslaughter. It was the most
serious verdict available to them.
New
criminal charges were unlikely because the incident
happened in France outside the British authorities’
jurisdiction, a court spokesman said.
Nine
photographers were charged with manslaughter in France,
but the charges were thrown out in 2002. Three of the
photographers were convicted of invasion of privacy in
2006 for taking pictures of the couple.
The
couple and their driver died in
Paris
when their speeding car slammed into a concrete pillar
while it was being chased by photographers in cars and
on motorbikes. The jury, which voted 9-2 to blame the
driver and paparazzi, added that the fact Diana and Dodi
were not wearing seat belts was a contributing factor to
their deaths.
The
coroner, Lord Justice Scott Baker, had instructed the
jury there was no evidence to support claims by Fayed’s
father, Mohamed Al Fayed, that the couple were victims
of a murder plot directed by Prince Philip and carried
out by British secret agents. The jury was not at
liberty to disagree.
Al-Fayed
refused to renounce his conspiracy theory and said he
was disappointed by the verdict.
“The
verdicts will come as a blow to the many millions of
people around the world who supported my struggle,” he
said in a statement read outside London’s High Court by
his spokesman Katharine Witty.
Asked
inside the courthouse for his reaction, Al Fayed said:
“The most important thing is it is murder.”
The six
women and five men on the jury began deliberating April
2 after hearing six months of testimony from more than
240 witnesses. They also went to Paris to see the scene
of the August 31, 1997, crash.
The cost
of the inquest itself, including lawyers and staff
assisting the coroner, exceeded $6 million.
This
doesn’t count the cost of lawyers representing the
Metropolitan Police and the Secret Intelligence Service,
nor the $16 million the Metropolitan Police says it
spent on its own two-year investigation. In an 813-page
report in December 2006, the police concluded there was
nothing to substantiate Al Fayed’s claims.
Baker
had expressed hope the inquest would lay to rest, once
and for all, any false theories about the princess’
death.
Dodi
Fayed died instantly when the couple’s Mercedes, moving
in excess of 60 mph, slammed into a concrete pillar in
the Alma underpass in Paris at 12:22 am. Medics
initially thought Diana would survive her severe
injuries, but she died at a hospital around 4 am.
The
paparazzi who pursued the couple were vilified. As
grieving Britons piled up flowers outside Diana’s
Kensington Palace home, some British newspapers declared
they would never use another paparazzi shot—a vow that
proved time-limited.
French
police announced a day after the crash that tests on
driver Henri Paul’s blood showed he was three times over
the national drunk-driving standard.
--AP |
