Father Of Dodi al-Fayed Refuses To Accept Princess Di Report Findings
Posted December 14, 2006 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It’s a starling accusation but it’s not a surprising one considering the source.
Mohamed al-Fayed, the father of the man the Princess was dating at the time of her death in 1997, has rejected the findings from the commission looking into the tragic accident that killed them both.
Former police chief John Stevens spent three years probing every frame of video and every document relating to the crash inside a Paris tunnel. He concluded it was a tragic accident.
But the wealthy owner of Harrods department store remains adamant that the fix was in from the beginning to find no evidence of a conspiracy in the case and that the Royal Family used their influence to affect the findings.
“Nobody have any right just to predict and spreading rumour, this saying things which are not completely real,” he maintains in broken English.
“I am the one who have been very close to Diana in the last 14 days before she died … She was the person who have conveyed to me all her suffering, all the devastation of the threats she had in her life in the last 20 years she was living in the Royal Family environment,” he charges.
“I know what she told me, three hours before she died, I know what my son [Dodi al-Fayed] told me before the plan [had] been executed.”
He insists the pair were murdered by the British Secret Service because their relationship was an embarrassment and posed a risk to the monarchy. And he wants a public inquiry that won’t draw its conclusions behind closed doors.
“Is this right for them to spread the report before any inquest in front of any jury?” he asks. “It’s not right … Lord Stevens … been ordered to do it, removing the original coroner, putting somebody just to help Lord Stevens expose and do his plan to exactly accommodate the Royal Family and the establishment.”
Stevens was prepared for the reaction, knowing no matter what he found, someone would have reason to doubt it.
“There will be a number of people who will find it very hard to accept the conclusions we’ve come up with,” he concedes. “It’s extraordinary; even some friends of mine have questioned whether I came across something I would disclose it. If they knew me better, they would know that I would.
“I have no doubt that speculation as to what happened that night will continue, and there are some matters, as in any investigation, that will remain unknown.”
Diana’s children, Princes Harry and William, issued a joint statement thanking Stevens for his work, and hoping the findings will end the speculation.
It seems unlikely they’ll get their wish.
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