Dodi's father: Blair, royals, others kill son, Diana

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-02-19 09:47

Mohamed Al Fayed has accused former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and several members of the royal family of involvement in a plot to kill Princess Diana and his son Dodi, media reports said Tuesday.


Mohamed al-Fayed (R), who claims Princess Diana and his son were killed in a wide-ranging conspiracy led by Britain's royal family , waves to journalists as he arrives for the inquest into the deaths of Princess Diana and Dodi al-Fayed, at the High Court in London Feb. 18, 2008. [Xinhua]

Fayed, the billionaire owner of the Harrods department store, testified Monday at a coroner's inquest that the cast of conspirators involved in the 1997 deaths of Diana and Dodi included Prince Philip, Prince Charles, former Prime Minister Tony Blair and Diana's sister, Sarah McCorquodale.

After waiting a decade for his day in court, the 75-year-old fired off a barrage of sensational allegations, accusing everyone from the royals, spy agencies, police and Blair of planning to kill the princess.

"She told me she knew Prince Philip and Prince Charles were trying to get rid of her," Fayed said in a sensational hearing at London's High Court.

He referred to the royals as a "Dracula family," calling Prince Philip a "Nazi" and a "racist" and accused him of ordering the couple's murder because he hated the idea they were engaged and expecting a baby.

He told the inquest into her and Dodi's deaths that Diana's sister, Lady Sarah McCorquodale, the couple's bodyguards, the CIA, journalists, doctors and even judges were caught up in the plot.

Lengthy investigations by French and British police concluded that the Aug. 31, 1997 crash was an accident, and that driver Henri Paul was drunk and speeding.

Fayed said he had been thwarted in attempts to prove his theory that the deaths were actually part of a plot led by Prince Philip.

"How can you want me to get the proof?" he said. "I am facing a steel wall of the security service, Official Secrets Act. How can you tell me?"

Asked if Queen Elizabeth II was in on the plot, he said: "I do not think the queen is important in that."

Charles' interest, Fayed claimed, was to get Diana out of the way so that he could marry Camilla Parker Bowles. "They finished her, they murdered her and now he is happy. He married his crocodile wife and he is happy with that," he said.

Those who disagreed with Al Fayed were dismissed by him as either conspirators or liars.

Richard Horwell, representing the Metropolitan Police, ridiculed key parts of Al Fayed's theory -- that Diana was pregnant, that she and Dodi Fayed were victims of a complex conspiracy and that James Andanson, a paparazzi photographer, was allegedly dispatched as the assassin.

Though several witnesses have described Diana's relationship with Khan as intense, Al Fayed dismissed it as "nothing serious."

The coroner asked Al Fayed if it was possible that he was wrong.

"I am certain. I am the father who lost his son. And I know exactly the situations. I know exactly the facts," Al Fayed said.

 



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