UK National News - Al Fayed asked for evidence in Diana inquest

05 March 2007

Al Fayed asked for evidence in Diana inquest

Mohammed Al Fayed has been asked to provide any evidence that Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed were murdered to an inquest into their deaths.

Speaking at a pre-inquest hearing on Monday, Lady Butler-Sloss said that she had not been given "a shred of evidence" about the allegations.

Lady Butler-Sloss said that evidence would be needed in order to allow the jury to consider the allegations made by Mr Al Fayed.

Mr Al Fayed has asked Lady Butler-Sloss to postpone the inquests, which are due to begin in May, for six months. On Friday, he won a ruling at the High Court requiring the inquests to be heard before a jury of ordinary people.

Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed died when the car they were travelling in crashed in the Pont d'Alma tunnel in Paris in August 1997. They were being pursued by paparazzi at the time.

An inquiry into the deaths, led by former Metropolitan Police chief Lord Stevens, concluded that their deaths were an accident and that there was no evidence of a conspiracy to have the couple murdered.

However, Mohammed Al Fayed has always claimed that the couple were murdered.

(KMcA/SP)