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Al Fayed resigns himself to jury's verdict on Diana
Mohammad Al Fayed says he is abandoning his legal quest spanning more than a decade to prove his belief that Princess Diana and his son were killed by British secret agents.
- AP
- Published: 00:28 April 10, 2008
London: Mohammad Al Fayed says he is abandoning his legal quest spanning more than a decade to prove his belief that Princess Diana and his son were killed by British secret agents.
Al Fayed said he would reluctantly accept a coroner's jury ruling that Diana and Dodi Fayed were unlawfully killed due to reckless speed and drinking by their driver, and by the reckless pursuit of vehicles chasing them.
"Enough is enough," Al Fayed said in an interview with ITV News broadcast on Tuesday night. "For the sake of the two princes, who I know loved their mother," he said.
Diana's sons, Princes William and Harry, endorsed the verdict delivered by a jury on Monday.
Despite saying he accepted the verdict, the millionaire owner of the Harrods department store chain said he still believed the couple were murdered and that the evidence presented at the inquest supported his theory.
"I'm a father who has lost his son and I've done everything for 10 years. But now, with the verdict I accept it, but with reservations," he said.
"But I have (had) enough. I'm leaving the rest for God to get my revenge," Al Fayed said. "I'm not doing anything any more ... this is the end."
The coroner, Lord Justice Scott Baker, had told the jury that Al Fayed and his legal team had not produced any evidence that the secret intelligence service, known as MI6, was involved in the fatal car crash in Paris on August 31, 1997.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown backed the princes as well. "I think the princes, William and Harry, have spoken for the whole country when they say this is time to bring this to an end," he said on Tuesday.
Testimony under oath
Al Fayed had claimed that MI6 agents were taking orders from Prince Philip, the husband of Queen Elizabeth II, but when he testified under oath, he said he would accept the jury's verdict.
But Michael Cole, another spokesman for Al Fayed, complained in a GMTV interview that the jury had not been allowed to hear evidence from Philip and the queen.
"When he (Al Fayed) made that declaration, it was on the assumption that the jury would be allowed to hear everything. They weren't," Cole said.
"He had no way of knowing that so many key French witnesses would refuse to come forward," Cole said, apparently referring to the lack of testimony from most of the paparazzi and from two French experts who conducted tests on the blood of the couple's driver, Henri Paul, who was acting head of security at the Ritz Hotel, owned by Al Fayed.
Asked whether Al Fayed felt any responsibility for Paul's drinking on the job, Katharine Witty, a spokeswoman for Al Fayed, replied: "It was a tragedy what happened to Henri Paul. Henri Paul was an employee of the Ritz, which is not the same as saying an employee of Mohammad."
In his summation, Lord Justice Baker categorically dismissed claims of MI6 involvement.
I'm a father who has lost his son and I've done everything for 10 years. But now with the verdict I accept it, but with reservations. But I have [had] enough. I'm leaving the rest for God to get my revenge. I'm not doing anything any more ... this is the end."
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