Benutzer:Cοlin/Tod von Diana, Princess of Wales

The Pont de l'Alma tunnel, where Diana was fatally injured.

On 31 August 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales was killed in a car crash in a limousine in the Pont de l'Alma road tunnel in Paris, France, along with her companion Dodi Fayed, and their driver Henri Paul. Fayed's bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones was the only car occupant to survive the accident.

Most reports and findings concluded that the cause was a car crash occasioned by the driver Henri Paul, who had consumed too much alcohol and had lost control speeding whilst trying to evade press photographers. There was controversy about the initial finding. Dodi's father Mohamed Fayed (the owner of the Hôtel Ritz, for which the chauffeur worked) has spent several years attempting to obtain a full disclosure of the investigation. The police inquiry in France concluded that there was no evidence of conspiracy. A subsequent police inquiry in the UK, specifically into the conspiracy allegations, reported in 2006: it concluded that Fayed's questions had no genuine basis for concern, and should be dismissed.

Inquests into the deaths of Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed began in London on 2 October 2007

Circumstances

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The Mercedes in the tunnel after the crash

On Saturday 30 August 1997, the Princess of Wales arrived in Paris with Emad El-Din Mohamed Abdel Moneim Fayed (Dodi Fayed), the son of Mohamed Fayed. They had stopped there en route to London, having spent the preceding nine days together on board Mohamed Fayed’s yacht, the ‘Jonikal’, on the French and Italian Riviera. They had intended to stay overnight. Mohamed Fayed was and is the owner of the Hôtel Ritz in Place Vendôme, Paris. He also owned an apartment in rue Arsène Houssaye, a short distance from the hotel and located just off the avenue des Champs-Elysées.

Henri Paul, the Acting Head of Security at the Ritz Hotel, had a plan to elude the paparazzi. A decoy vehicle left the Ritz first, attracting a throng of photographers. The Princess of Wales and Dodi Fayed would then depart.

At around 12:20 a.m. on Sunday 31 August 1997, the Princess of Wales and Dodi Fayed left the Ritz Hotel to return to the apartment in rue Arsène Houssaye. They were the rear passengers in a Mercedes-Benz W140 car, registration number "688 LTV 75", driven by Paul. Trevor Rees-Jones, a member of the Fayed family's personal protection team, was in the front passenger seat.

They left from the rear of the hotel, the rue Cambon exit. After crossing the Place de la Concorde they drove along Cours la Reine and Cours Albert 1er (the embankment road running parallel to the River Seine) into the Place de l’Alma underpass. At the entrance to the tunnel, their car lost control, swerved to the left of the two-lane carriageway and collided head-on with the thirteenth pillar supporting the roof at a estimated speed of 105 km/h (65mph), then spun to a stop. There was no guard rail between the pillars to prevent this.

Dodi Fayed and Henri Paul both died at the scene. Dodi Fayed had been sitting in the rear left passenger seat and appeared to be dead. Nevertheless, fire officers were still trying - in vain - to resuscitate him when he was pronounced dead by a doctor at 1.30hrs. Henri Paul was declared dead on removal from the wreckage. Both were taken directly to the Institut Médico-Légal (IML), the Paris mortuary, not to a hospital. Autopsy examination concluded that Henri Paul and Dodi Fayed had both suffered a rupture in the isthmus of the aorta and a fractured spine, with, in the case of Henri Paul, a medullar section in the dorsal region and in the case of Dodi Fayed a medullar section in the cervical region.

Trevor Rees-Jones was still conscious and had suffered serious multiple injuries to the face. The two forward passengers' airbags had functioned normally.

The Princess of Wales, who had been sitting in the rear right passenger seat, was still conscious. It was first reported that she was crouched on the floor of the vehicle with her back to the road. It was also first reported that a paparazzo who saw Diana described her as bleeding from the nose and ears with her head rested on the back of the front passenger's seat; he tried to remove Diana from the car but her feet were stuck. Then he told her that help was on the way and to stay awake; there was no answer from the princess, just blinking. It was not until June 2007 that what really happened was revealed, in the Channel 4 documentary "Diana: the Witnesses in the Tunnel": the first person to touch Diana was Dr. Maillez, who was chanced upon the scene. He reported that Diana had no visible injuries but was under shock. He could supply her with oxygen.

When the police arrived the seven paparazzi on the scene were arrested. She was taken by ambulance to Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, but the ambulance stopped for almost one hour in the street, just hundreds of meters from the hospital, arriving there shortly after 2:00 a.m. Despite attempts to save her, her internal injuries were too extensive: her heart had been displaced from the left to the right side of the chest, which tore the pulmonary vein and the pericardium. Despite surgery, the damage was irreparable. Two hours later, at 4:00 that morning, the doctors pronounced her dead. At 5:30, her death was announced at a press conference held by a hospital doctor, Jean-Pierre Chevènement, France's Interior Minister, and Sir Michael Jay, Britain's ambassador to France.

Many have speculated that if Diana had worn a seat belt, her injuries would have been less severe. This speculation was likely fueled by early media reports stating that Trevor Rees-Jones was the only car occupant to have worn a seat belt. However, these reports proved incorrect: both the French and the British investigations concluded that none of the occupants of the car was wearing a seat belt at the time of the impact. Trevor Rees-Jones was taken to the same hospital as the Princess of Wales for emergency treatment.

Later that morning, Chevenement, together with Lionel Jospin (the French Prime Minister), Bernadette Chirac (the wife of the then French President, Jacques Chirac) and Bernard Kouchner (French Health Minister), visited the hospital room where Diana's body lay and paid their last respects. After their visits, the Anglican Archdeacon of France, Father Martin Draper, said commendatory prayers from the Book of Common Prayer.

At around 2:00 p.m. the Prince of Wales and Diana's two sisters, Lady Sarah McCorquodale and Lady Jane Fellowes, arrived in Paris; they left with her body ninety minutes later.

Subsequent events

Initial media reports stated Diana's car had collided with the pillar at over 190 km/h (120 mph), and that the speedometer's needle had jammed at that position. It was later announced the car's actual speed on collision was about 95–110 km/h (60–70 mph), and that the speedometer had no needle as it was digital; this conflicts with the list of available equipment and features of the Mercedes-Benz W140 S-Class, which used a computer-controlled analogue speedometer, with no digital readout for speed. The car was certainly travelling much faster than the legal speed limit of 50 km/h (30 mph), and faster than was prudent for the Alma underpass. In 1999, a French investigation concluded the Mercedes had come into contact with another vehicle (a white Fiat Uno) in the tunnel. The driver of that vehicle has never come forward, and the vehicle itself has not been found.

The investigators concluded that the crash was an accident brought on by an intoxicated driver attempting to elude pursuing paparazzi at high speed.

In October 2003, the Daily Mirror published a letter from Princess Diana in which, ten months before her death, she wrote about a possible plot to kill her by tampering with the brakes of her car. “This particular phase in my life is the most dangerous.” She said [name deleted] “is planning ‘an accident’ in my car, brake failure and serious head injury in order to make the path clear for Charles to marry”."

On 6 January 2004, six years after her death, an inquest into the deaths of Diana and Dodi Al Fayed opened in London held by Michael Burgess, the coroner of The Queen's Household. The coroner asked the then Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir John Stevens (now Lord Stevens of Kirkwhelpington), to make inquiries, in response to speculation (see below) that the deaths were not an accident. The Metropolitan Police investigation reported their findings in Operation Paget in December 2006 (see below).

Later in 2004, US TV network CBS showed pictures of the crash scene showing an intact rear side and an intact centre section of the Mercedes, including one of an unbloodied Diana with no outward injuries, crouched on the rear floor of the vehicle with her back to the right passenger seat — the right rear car door is completely opened. The release of these pictures caused uproar in the UK, where it was widely felt that the privacy of the Princess was being infringed, and spurred another lawsuit by Mohammed Fayed. Twenty unknown pictures of the crash scene just after the accident should be archived by CBS. see also photo No.5

In January 2006, Lord Stevens explained in an interview on GMTV that the case is substantially more complex than once thought. The Sunday Times wrote on 29 January 2006 that agents of the British secret service were cross-examined, because they were in Paris at the time of the accident. It was suggested in a German journal that these agents might have exchanged the blood test of the driver with another blood sample (although no evidence for this has ever been forthcoming).

On 13 July 2006 the Italian magazine Chi published a photograph showing the Princess in her "last moments" despite an unofficial blackout on such photographs being published. The photograph was taken shortly after the crash, and shows the Princess slumped in the back seat while a paramedic attempts to fit an oxygen mask over her face. This photograph was also published in other Italian and Spanish magazines and newspapers.

The editor of Chi defended his decision by saying he published the photographs for the "simple reason that they haven't been seen before" and that he felt the images do not disrespect the memory of the Princess.

These photographs were taken from the French investigation dossier.

Conspiracy theories and Operation Paget

Although the initial French investigation found Diana had died as a result of an accident, Mohammed Fayed and the Daily Express have persistently raised conspiracy theories that she was assassinated. This led in 2004 to the establishment of a special Metropolitan Police inquiry team, Operation Paget, headed by the then Commissioner Lord Stevens to investigate the conspiracy theories.

Henri Paul

→ Hauptartikel: Henri Paul

Many allegations were made about the driver of the Mercedes, Henri Paul, to support the overall conspiracy allegation. These included allegations he was in the pay of a national security service though different versions of the allegation name the country of the security service alternately as Britain, France or even the United States. Purported evidence to support this arises from the cash in his possession at the time of his death and his personal wealth. These and all the other allegations are covered in chapter four of the Operation Paget criminal investigation report. However, one of the most well known allegations concerns the reliability of the blood tests carried out that indicated he had been drinking before he took the controls of the car.

The French investigators' conclusion that Henri Paul was drunk was made largely on the basis of an analysis of blood samples, which were stated to contain an alcohol level that (according to Jay's September 1997 report) was three times the French legal limit. This initial analysis was challenged by a British pathologist hired by the Fayeds; in response, French authorities carried out a third test, this time using the medically more conclusive fluid from the sclera (white of the eye), which confirmed the level of alcohol measured by blood and also showed Paul had been taking antidepressants.

The families of Dodi Fayed and Henri Paul have not accepted the French investigators' findings. Fayed, for his part, stands by his belief that the Princess and his son were killed in an elaborate conspiracy.

In November 2006, various news sources reported that the identity of the person to whom the blood samples belonged, had finally been ascertained, and that the samples belonged to a suicide victim. French forensic pathologist Dominique Lecomte was said to be facing an investigation over allegations of misleading the inquiry. Other sources stated that whilst there were omissions and errors in the pathologist's report, DNA samples confirm the owner of the blood samples with high alcohol levels was indeed the driver, who was therefore correctly said to be under the influence of alcohol.

On December 10 2006, it was reported that DNA evidence concludes that the blood tested is indeed that of Henri Paul. The tests confirm that original post-mortem blood samples were from driver Henri Paul and that he had three times the French legal limit of alcohol in his blood, the BBC said.

Allegation of MI6 involvement

Richard Tomlinson, a former MI6 agent who was dismissed from the intelligence services and later served time in prison for breaching the Official Secrets Act, has claimed that Britain's Secret Intelligence Service was involved. Tomlinson alleged that MI6 was monitoring Princess Diana before her death, that her driver on the night she died was an MI6 agent, and that her death mirrored plans he saw in 1992 for the assassination of then President of Serbia Slobodan Milošević. Tomlinson was arrested by French Authorities in July 2006 as part of their inquiry into the death of Princess Diana. French police were also reported to have seized computer files and personal papers from his home in Cannes.

The Operation Paget Inquiry was given unprecedented access to the offices of both MI5 and MI6 to investigate Tomlinson's claims. They found the original memo he referred to from 1992 and it was found to be a proposal to assassinate another Serbian figure if he gained power: not Slobodan Milošević. Furthermore, the plan had none of the detail about a car crash in a tunnel. The Inquiry consulted the Crown Prosecution Service to see if a prosecution for conspiracy to murder was appropriate for the report's author as it is against British Government policy to carry out assassinations. A prosecution was not pursued but the author was subjected to a disciplinary procedure by MI6. The memo was shown to Tomlinson and he admitted it was the one he was referring to in his claims.

The Inquiry found no evidence Henri Paul was an agent for any security service and only had very limited occasional and unpaid contact with the French Security Services due to the sensitive nature of his job. It also found limited evidence of surveillance of Diana, mainly arising from phone calls she made to her friend Lucia Flecha De Lima at the Brazilian Embassy but there was nothing to suggest a concerted effort to bug her phone calls and there was certainly no monitoring of her in Paris as there was strong evidence the British Authorities had no way of knowing she was in Paris at the time of the accident.

Further evidence that discredited Tomlinson's claims was found in drafts of a book he was writing about his time in MI6 before he was jailed in 1998 for breaching the Official Secrets Act. The first draft of the book, dating from 1996, referred to the 1992 memo proposing assassination and contained none of the detail about a staged car crash in a tunnel. However, a later draft of the book from late 1997 had the same reference to the memo but contained the added car crash detail. Operation Paget regarded it as no coincidence that this detail appeared after news of how Diana died was in the public domain.

The Inquiry concluded by dismissing Tomlinson's claims as an obvious embellishment. It went on to comment that this embellishment is largely responsible for giving rise to the theories Diana was murdered.

Relationship with Dodi Fayed

One of the main motives which have been advanced for alleged murder include suggestions Diana was pregnant with Dodi's child and the couple were about to get engaged. It was alleged racism within the British Royal Family meant such a relationship between the mother of the future king and a prominent Egyptian Muslim would not be tolerated.

Mohammed Fayed made the assertion in television interviews that the couple were going to announce their engagement on the Monday after the accident: 1 September 1997. Operation Paget commented that an announcement of such magnitude from the Princess of Wales would have been a substantial media event of worldwide interest and would have required much preparation. No evidence that any such preparation had been made was found.

A few hours before the accident, on the afternoon of 30 August, Diana's journalist friend, Richard Kay received a call on his mobile phone from Diana in which she asked about what was likely to appear in the following day's Sunday papers about her. During this call, she made no mention of any announcement she intended to make.

More revealing was the statement given by Diana's eldest sister, Lady Sarah McCorquodale, who testified that in a phone conversation with Diana on Friday 29 August, Diana spoke about Dodi Fayed in a manner that gave her sister the impression the relationship was on "stony ground".

Statements from other friends and confidantes she spoke to in the week before her death including her butler Paul Burrell, her friend Lady Annabel Goldsmith and her spiritual advisor Rita Rogers were unanimous in stating she was firm about not wanting to get engaged or married to anyone at that point in her life.

Her former private secretary, Patrick Jephson, said to the BBC in reaction to the publication of the Operation Paget Report in December 2006 that her facial expression in the CCTV footage of her at the Paris Ritz on her final evening with Dodi Fayed was one she would wear when she was disgruntled with a situation.

The inquiry interviewed Hasnat Khan, a Muslim heart surgeon of Pakistani origin based in London, who had a relationship with Diana for almost two years, from September 1995 until July 1997. Diana had even explored the possibility of an interfaith marriage with him. This had been met with no opposition from the Royal Family and Prince Charles had given it his blessing. Khan stated that he had received some racist hate mail from members of the public because of the relationship but he had no reason to take what was said in this hate mail seriously. He also stated that he felt the relationship was not opposed by either the Royal Family or any other branch of the British Government including the security services. Paul Burrell stated that Diana was still not over her break-up with Khan at the time of her death.

It was also pointed out that Dodi and Diana had only first met each other just under seven weeks before the accident, at Mohammed Fayed's villa in St Tropez on 14 July meaning there were only 47 days from first meeting until the night of the accident. Of those days, their schedules permitted them to be together for an absolute maximum of 35 days. From analysis of Diana's actual movements, it is likely they had only spent approximately 23 days together before the accident.

Pregnancy

In January 2004, the former coroner of The Queen's Household, Dr. John Burton, said (in an interview with The Times) that he attended a post-mortem examination of the Princess's body at Fulham mortuary, where he personally examined her womb and found her not to be pregnant.

In an effort to prove the assertions made by Mohammed Fayed, Operation Paget had scientific tests carried out on pre-transfusion blood found in the footwell of the seat in the wrecked Mercedes the Princess of Wales occupied at the time of the accident. This blood was found to have no trace of the HCG hormone associated with pregnancy.

The inquiry also extensively interviewed friends of Diana's who were in close contact with her in the weeks leading up to her death. The evidence obtained from these witnesses was of a very sensitive nature and most of it was not included in Operation Paget's criminal investigation report. However, it was reported that friends said she was in her normal menstrual cycle and there was evidence she was using contraception. Added to this, if she thought she was pregnant she did not tell any of her family (including Prince William), friends, confidantes or her doctor. Secrecy on a matter such as pregnancy or engagement would have been highly out of character. Her friend, Rosa Monckton, said in an interview to a BBC documentary on the conspiracy theories in 2006 that Diana had her period while on holiday with her about ten days before she died.

Further evidence that disproved the pregnancy allegation was provided by Myriah Daniels who was an holistic healer who travelled aboard Mohammed Fayed's yacht ‘Jonikal’ on the second cruise she went on with him and his son Dodi at the end of August 1997. She had known Dodi Fayed since the late 1980s and travelled with him, often providing him with regular treatment. She provided the following statement to the Operation Paget investigators:

‘I have been asked whether or not Diana was pregnant. I can say with one hundred per cent certainty that she was not pregnant. I will explain how I can be so sure of this fact. Firstly, she told me herself that she was not pregnant. Secondly, when you have the years of experience that I have of caring for women’s bodies there are many indications as to whether or not a woman is pregnant. It is incomprehensible to me that Diana would have allowed me to carry out such an invasive treatment [deep massage] on her stomach and intestines if she thought she was pregnant……

I have worked with women in the past, from prior to conception, through the full term of a pregnancy and I am familiar with what a pregnant body feels like even in its early stages, as well as the things that women would normally say to me about their pregnancy, no matter what stage it’s in.’

‘…This is a very sensitive issue for me to discuss but I know for a fact she wasn’t pregnant because she told me she wasn’t and through the course of my work on her body I found no indications to show that she was. If there were any chance that she were pregnant, she definitely did not know about it herself. This is supported by a direct conversation I had with Diana on board the ‘Jonikal’.

Mohammed Fayed's persistence in asserting Diana was pregnant led him to get members of his staff to tell the media that on their final day together, Diana and his son had visited a villa he owned in Paris that was formerly owned by the Duchess of Windsor with a view to choosing a room "for the baby". While the couple had indeed visited the villa, the circumstances of the visit were exaggerated to say it lasted two hours and was in the presence of a prominent Italian interior designer. A security guard at the villa, Reuben Murrell, felt uncomfortable about lying about the matter and sold his story to The Sun stating the visit did in fact last just under thirty minutes and was not in the company of any interior designer. He provided stills from CCTV to prove this and said he had been in the presence of Diana and Dodi for the entirety of their visit and there was no conversation about them coming to live at the villa. He later resigned from Mohammed Fayed's employment and initiated an employment tribunal for constructive dismissal after Fayed had successfully sued him for breach of copyright over the CCTV images he supplied to The Sun. Senior members of Fayed's staff made derogatory comments about Murrell and Trevor Rees-Jones in their statements to Operation Paget.

In 2004, a Channel 4 documentary 'The Diana Conspiracy' refuting the conspiracy theories, it was claimed the butler at the villa who gave an interview to the ITV documentary 'Diana: Secrets Behind the Crash' in June 1998 claiming to have shown the couple around with a view to them living there wasn't even present at the villa on the day as he was on vacation at the time.

Embalming of the body

Mohamed Al Fayed alleged that Diana's body was deliberately embalmed soon after her death to ensure that any pregnancy test at post-mortem would produce a false result.

Operation Paget found that 31 August 1997 was a very hot day in Paris. Diana's body had been stored in an empty room adjacent to emergency room where she had been treated at the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital as the mortuary was on the other side of the hospital grounds and some distance away. Dry ice and air conditioning units were placed in the room to keep the room cool but appeared to have little success.

Diana's two sisters and Prince Charles were scheduled to come over to view the body later that afternoon before bringing it back to England, President Chirac and his wife also wished to pay their respects. This meant there was very little time to prepare the body for viewing and it was clearly unacceptable to present Diana's body to her family and the President of France in its then state.

Faced with this situation, the hospital staff decided to press ahead with embalming with only verbal authority from Madame Martine Monteil, the local superintendent of police, who assured Jean Monceau "that everything would be in order". Under French law, paperwork is required to be completed before undertaking the embalming of any body likely to be subject to a post-mortem. This paperwork was completed but only after the embalming had been carried out, giving rise to allegations of suspicious circumstances. This comes despite there being no way the hospital staff could have known whether or not Diana was pregnant as a preganancy test would have been irrelevant to her post crash treatment and accordingly was not carried out.

A bright flash

An alternative explanation for the cause of the crash has been reports of a bright white flash just before the car entered the tunnel, blinding the driver. Richard Tomlinson made this allegation in media interviews and claimed it was consistent with eye witness testimony.

Operation Paget investigated Tomlinson's claim that the use of a powerful strobe light to blind helicopter pilots formed part of MI6 Agents' training in the early 90s and it was apparent this tactic had been used to facilitate the murder of Diana. The police found that such a tactic never, at any time, formed part of MI6 training.

The detail of eye witness testimony was thoroughly reviewed and Operation Paget officers succeeded in uncovering two new witnesses. The police found that only one eyewitness at the scene of the crash, François Levistre, made a clear, specific reference to seeing a bright flash. He claimed to have seen it in his rearview mirror and recounted other elements of what he saw in considerable detail while he was negotiating the difficult bend out of the tunnel; a task which would have required his full attention on the road in front of him. Crucially however, his testimony was directly contradicted by his then wife who was sat in the passenger seat next to him. Television documentaries produced by Channel 4 in 2004 and the BBC in 2006 both raised the issue of Levistre's prior criminal record for offences involving dishonesty.

Other eyewitness testimony made little reference to the appearance of any inexplicable flashes at the crash site. Several witnesses who would be expected to have seen a blinding flash made no reference to one.

In any event, the detailed crash reconstruction revealed that the chain of events that led to the car unavoidably colliding with the pillar started well before it was at the mouth of the tunnel where the flash is alleged to have been discharged. Furthermore, a strobe light of the type that was alleged to have been used is so powerful that a flash emitted from it would have been bright enough to illuminate a very wide area. It would have likely blinded not only Henri Paul, but also the driver of the white Fiat Uno, the pursuing paparazzi and witnesses standing at the road side. The Operation Paget report concluded the alleged flash did not happen.

A white Fiat Uno and 'James' Andanson

Analysis of the wreckage of the Mercedes revealed it had glancing contact with a white Fiat Uno car which left traces of paint on the Mercedes' bodywork but extensive attempts by the French police to find the vehicle involved failed.

The essence of the allegations made by Mohammed Fayed were the white Fiat Uno was used by the "security services" to block the road in front of the Mercedes, causing it to swerve and thereby crash into the side of the tunnel. Fayed further alleged that the Fiat Uno involved was owned by a French photojournalist named 'James' Andanson who had photograped Diana while she was at his villa in St. Tropez in July 1997. Andanson's suicide in May 2000, Fayed claimed, was either due to guilt over what he had done or because he was assassinated by the French or British security services to silence him.

Operation Paget found Andanson had a solid alibi for the night of the accident placing him at his home some Vorlage:Convert south of Paris. This alibi was supported by documents related to travel he made from his home on the morning after the accident and statements from his widow and son. The white Fiat Uno he owned was in an unroadworthy condition; being nine years old at the time with 370,000 km on the clock and had not been maintained for several years before the death of Diana. He traded it in part exchange with a Fiat dealership near his home in November 1997 for a new car. Operation Paget concluded it extremely unlikely because of the car's condition and the fact Andanson had so openly disposed of it that it was the one at the scene of the accident in Paris.

French police examined 'James' Andanson's car as part of their effort to trace the one that had come into contact with the Mercedes with a view to prosecuting the driver for failing to render assistance. They reached the same conclusion Operation Paget investigators were to seven years later. The French police spent a year after the accident searching for the vehicle and eliminated over 4000 white Fiat Unos from their inquiry. Operation Paget decided it would be unlikely renewed enquiries would identify the vehicle involved as such a long period of time had elapsed since the accident. It concluded the threat of prosecution for an imprisonable offence probably deterred the driver from coming forward at the time.

'James' Andanson's suicide in May 2000 was attributed to problems in his private life and evidence was uncovered from his friends and associates that he had talked of suicide long before the death of Diana and he had even mentioned details of the social circumstances in which he would take his life and the method by which he would do it. Their testimony was consistent with the way Andanson actually took his life.

Operation Paget found no evidence Andanson was known to any security service and, contrary to Fayed's claims, his death was thoroughly investigated by French police. A break-in at his former workplace in June 2000 alleged to have been carried out by security services was found to be unconnected to his death as no items related to him were stolen. The break-in was also thoroughly investigated by French police who successfully prosecuted known criminals for carrying it out.

However, in the Daily Express of 3 September 2007, it was claimed a French firefighter named Christophe Pelat claimed that he had new information as a result of being the first person to arrive at Andanson's death scene. Pelat claims he saw two bullet holes in Andanson's skull, evidence of foul play that contradicted the official line that Andanson's death was by suicide.

Andanson's alleged involvement in the death of Diana is an issue that will be explored at the coming Inquests on the deaths due to start in England in October 2007.

CCTV images

The absence of CCTV images showing the Mercedes' journey from the hotel to the crash site has been frequently cited as evidence of an organised conspiracy. In a submission to the Minister for Justice, Scotland for Public Inquiry in February 2003, Mohammed Fayed stated that there were approximately 10 video cameras on the route taken by the Mercedes, including one on the entrance to the tunnel itself, yet there are no recordings from any of these cameras for the night in question. In December 2006 The Independent newspaper published an article stating there were more than 14 CCTV cameras in the Pont de l'Alma underpass, yet none have recorded footage of the fatal collision.

Judge Hervé Stéphan was appointed as Examining Magistrate in this case on 2 September 1997. On that day, by Judicial Order, he tasked the Brigade Criminelle with identifying all video and photographic images along the route taken by the Mercedes. Lieutenant Eric Gigou of the Brigade Criminelle led the team that carried out that work, initially by retracing the route several times and drawing up a list of possible locations. His report showed that the team identified ten locations of CCTV cameras. None of these had any images relevant to the inquiry, since they were principally security cameras facing the entrances to buildings. Most of the cameras were not maintained by the City of Paris - the owners of the buildings to which they were attached operated them privately.

There was a traffic-monitoring camera above the underpass in the Place de l’Alma itself but this was under the control of la Compagnie de Circulation Urbaine de Paris (Paris Urban Traffic Unit). That department closed down at about 11pm, had no night duty staff and made no recordings. Officers in the Police Headquarters Information and Command Centre could continue to view the pictures shown by the traffic camera in real time but could not control it. There would be no reason for those in the overnight control room in Paris to be viewing that camera in particular, before the crash.

The subject of the CCTV cameras is dealt with in Chapter 5 of the Operation Paget report. It was also found a photograph that was published in a book by David Cohen 'Diana, Death of a Goddess' and captioned as having been taken just before the car entered the tunnel was in fact taken by a photographer as the car left the back of the Paris Ritz.

Seatbelt

There was some media discussion in April 2006 suggesting that Diana was a faithful seat belt user and therefore the fact both of her and Dodi's belts either failed or were not used was sinister and may suggest sabotage. Other sources question if she did in fact use her belt all the time, as suggested.

"What is certain is that she was not wearing a seat belt and this made things worse. We would like to think that if she had been wearing a seat belt, we'd have been able to save her." Prof. Andre Lienhart, who reviewed the emergency services' response for the French government investigation of the incident.

CNN did an analysis of the crash and concluded that injuries would have been minor had the occupants been wearing seat belts.

In 2005, the Daily Express published an article claiming that the Mercedes had been stolen prior to the crash and altered to render the seat belts dysfunctional. This alteration had allegedly been carried out by the DST working in co-operation with MI5 and MI6. In this version of events, the car crash was then caused by a bright flash of light aimed at Henri Paul from a passing white Fiat Uno.

Analysis of the wreckage of the car after its repatriation to England in 2005 by a Forensic Accident Investigator from the Transport Research Laboratory of thirty-five years experience on behalf of Operation Paget found that all the seatbelts were in good working order with the exception of the right rear one which happened to be for the seat Diana occupied. Follow up enquiries with French investigators found that they had declared all the seatbelts operational at an examination in October 1998, suggesting the damage to this seatbelt took place long after the accident.

Transport to the hospital

The first call to the emergency services switchboard was logged at 00.26 am. The SAMU ambulance carrying the Princess arrived at the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital at 2.06 am. This length of time has prompted much conspiracy-related comment. The British tabloid, the Daily Express, has printed many articles relating to these conspiracies, leading to some sections of the British public dubbing this as 'Diana Monday'.Vorlage:Fact The newspaper has raised the question of the length of time taken by the ambulance to travel Vorlage:Convert to the hospital, stating this time to be 70 minutes, passing two other hospitals on the way.Vorlage:Fact

The period between the crash and the arrival at the hospital needs to take into account the following: the time taken for emergency services to arrive; the time taken by the Sapeurs-Pompiers de Paris to remove the Princess from the damaged car; and the actual journey time from the crash site to the hospital.

Police Officers Sébastien Dorzee and Lino Gagliadorne were the first emergency officials to arrive at the scene at around 12.30 am. Sergeants Xavier Gourmelom and Philippe Boyer of the Sapeurs-Pompiers arrived at around 12.32 am. Doctor Jean-Marc Martino, a specialist in anaesthetics and intensive care treatment and the doctor in charge of the SAMU ambulance, arrived at around 12.40 am. The Princess was removed from the car at 1.00 am. She then went into cardiac arrest. Following external cardiopulmonary resuscitation the Princess of Wales’ heart started beating again. She was moved to the SAMU ambulance at 1.18am.

The ambulance departed the crash scene at 1.41 am and arrived at the hospital at 2.06 am - a journey time of approximately 26 minutes. This included a stop at the Gare d’Austerlitz ordered by Dr Martino because of the drop in the blood pressure of the Princess of Wales and the necessity to deal with it. The ambulance was travelling slowly on his express instructions. The doctor was concerned about the Princess of Wales’ blood pressure and the effects on her medical condition of deceleration and acceleration.

The SAMU ambulance carrying the Princess of Wales passed the Hôtel-Dieu Hospital on the Ile de la Cité en route to the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital. The decision to transfer the Princess to the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital was taken by Dr Marc Lejay who was on despatch duty in SAMU Control on that night, in consultation with Dr Derossi, who was at the scene. The Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital was the main reception centre for multiple trauma patients in Paris. The Hôtel-Dieu was not equipped to deal with the injuries the Princess of Wales had sustained. Dr Marc Lejay stated: ‘The Hôtel-Dieu hospital on the ‘Ile de la Cité’ is closer but not equipped with heart surgery teams or neurosurgical teams or teams trained to take patients with multiple injuries.’ Dr Lejay was also aware that Professor Bruno Riou was on duty at the Pitié-Salpêtrière that night and was particularly skilled to treat the Princess of Wales’ injuries. Dr Jean-Marc Martino supported this view.

Funeral and public reaction

Diana's death was met with extraordinary public expressions of grief, and her funeral at Westminster Abbey on 6 September drew an estimated 3 million [1] mourners in London, as well as worldwide television coverage, which overshadowed the news of the death the previous day of Mother Teresa in Calcutta.

More than one million bouquets were left at her London home, Kensington Palace, while at her family's estate of Althorp the public was asked to stop bringing flowers, as the volume of people and flowers in the surrounding roads was said to be causing a threat to public safety.

Reaction of the Royal Family and Buckingham Palace

The reaction of the Royal Family to the death of Diana caused unprecedented resentment and outcry. (This, with the Queen's private discussions with Prime Minister Tony Blair, are depicted in the movie The Queen.) The Queen was in residence at Balmoral Castle. Her initial decision not to return to London or to mourn more publicly was much criticised at the time.

The Royal Family's rigid adherence to protocol, and their concern to care for the Princess's grieving sons, was interpreted by some as a lack of compassion.

In particular, the refusal of Buckingham Palace to fly the Royal Standard at half-mast provoked angry headlines in newspapers. "Where is our Queen? Where is her Flag?" asked The Sun.

The Royal Standard flying over Buckingham Palace, seen in 2006. Before Diana's death, the Royal Standard was the only flag flown at Buckingham Palace. The Standard is only flown when the Queen is in residence, and is never flown at half-mast.

The Palace's stance was one of royal protocol - no flag could fly over Buckingham Palace, as the Royal Standard is only flown when the Queen is in residence, and the Queen was then in Scotland. Furthermore, the Royal Standard never flies at half-mast as it is the Sovereign's flag and the Sovereign never dies (the new monarch immediately succeeds his or her predecessor).

The compromise finally arrived at was for the Union Flag to be flown instead, at half-mast, as the Queen left for Westminster Abbey on the day of Diana's funeral. This set a precedent, and Buckingham Palace has subsequently flown the Union Flag when the Queen is not in residence.

The Queen, who returned to London from Balmoral, agreed to a television broadcast to the nation. At the urging of Downing Street, what was to be a recorded piece became a live broadcast, and the script was revised by Alastair Campbell to be more "human".Vorlage:Fact

Public reaction

Mourners cast flowers at the funeral procession for almost the entire length of its journey before and after the service, and vehicles even stopped on the opposite carriageway of the M1 as the cars passed on the route to Althorp. Outside Westminster Abbey crowds cheered the dozens of celebrities who filed inside, including singer Sir Elton John (who performed a re-written version of his song Candle in the Wind). The service was televised live throughout the world, and loudspeakers were placed outside so the crowds could hear the proceedings. Protocol was disregarded when the guests applauded the speech by Diana's brother, Earl Spencer, who strongly criticised the press and indirectly criticised the Royal Family for their treatment of her. [2]

In the midst of this "public outpouring of grief" many commentators and members of the public found themselves nonplussed by what they considered to be mawkish, sentimental and self-indulgent displays of insincere emotion. A BBC debriefing paper, leaked to the press in 2006, indicated that 44 per cent of the population felt alienated by media coverage of the Princess's death and funeral. It said: "We were not always precise enough in our use of language, especially when we started to use phrases such as 'the mood of the nation', 'the grief of the public'. There was no single public mood, rather there was a variety of moods." The writer Francis Wheen recalls: "On that Sunday afternoon I was telephoned by a neighbour, a ferociously conservative columnist on the Daily Mail: 'I can’t bear much more of this. Fancy a drink in the pub?'"

Disgust was also aroused through what was perceived by many as a hypocritical turnaround on the part of many sectors of the media, in particular the tabloid press, who had abruptly shifted from the portrayal of Diana as a promiscuous, manipulative bimbo to the depiction of Diana as a saintly martyr. When the satirical magazine Private Eye issued a mock editorial consisting of a retraction of previous negative statements made against Diana, the magazine found itself subjected to heavy criticism from the media that it had intended to criticise and was temporarily removed from the shelves of WH Smith and other newsagents. Defenders of the magazine argued that the parody had been directed towards the attitude of the media, and not the death itself.

Diana, Princess of Wales, is buried at Althorp in Northamptonshire on an island in the middle of a lake called the Round Oval. In her casket, she wears a black Catherine Walker dress and is clutching a rosary in her hands. A visitors' centre is open during summer months, allowing visitors to see an exhibition about her and to walk around the lake.

During the four weeks following her funeral, the overall suicide rate in England and Wales rose by 17% and cases of deliberate self harm by 44.3%, compared with the average reported for that period in the four previous years. Researchers suggest that this was caused by the "identification" effect, as the greatest increase in suicides was by people most similar to Diana: women aged 25 to 44, whose suicide rate increased by over 45%.

In the years after her death, interest in the life of Diana has remained high. Numerous manufacturers of collectibles continue to produce Diana merchandise. Such items have drawn strong derision from certain quarters for their alleged kitsch value. Some even suggested making Diana a saint, stirring much controversy.

As a temporary memorial, the public co-opted the Flamme de Liberté (Flame of Liberty), a monument near the Alma Tunnel, and related to the French donation of the Statue of Liberty to the United States. The messages of condolence have since been removed, and its use as a Diana memorial has discontinued, though visitors visit and still leave messages at the site in her memory. The concrete wall at the edge of the tunnel is still used as an impromptu memorial for people to write their thoughts and feelings about Diana. A permanent memorial, the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain was opened in Hyde Park in London on 6 July 2004, but it has been plagued with problems and has been closed twice for repairs.

In 1999, a little more than a year after her death, the journalist Christopher Hitchens made a comment about her while on a cruise ship. He stated that Diana "has in common with a minefield the following: relatively easy to lay but extremely difficult, expensive, and dangerous to get rid of."Vorlage:Fact When there was a backlash concerning his quip he said that he "thought it was funny."Vorlage:Fact

Diana was ranked third in the 2002 Great Britons poll sponsored by the BBC and voted for by the British public. In this poll, she was ranked just above Charles Darwin (4th), who changed the course of science through his theory of natural selection, William Shakespeare (5th), regarded by many as the greatest writer in the English language, and Isaac Newton (6th), widely held to be the most influential scientist in the history of humanity.

In 2003, Marvel Comics announced it was to publish a five-part series entitled Di Another Day (a reference to the James Bond film Die Another Day) featuring a resurrected Diana, Princess of Wales, as a mutant with superpowers, as part of Peter Milligan's satirical X-Statix title. Amidst considerable outcry, the idea was quickly dropped. Heliograph Incorporated produced a roleplaying game, Diana: Warrior Princess by Marcus L. Rowland about a fictionalised version of the twentieth century as it might be seen a thousand years from now. Artist Thomas Demand made a video, Tunnel, in 1999, that featured a trip through a cardboard mock-up of the tunnel in which Diana died.

After her death, the actor Kevin Costner, who had been introduced to the Princess by her former sister-in-law, Sarah, Duchess of York claimed he had been in negotiations with the divorced Princess to co-star in a sequel to the thriller film The Bodyguard, which starred Costner and Whitney Houston. Buckingham Palace dismissed Costner's claims as unfounded.

Actor George Clooney publicly lambasted several tabloids and paparazzi agencies following Diana's death. A few of the tabloids boycotted Clooney following the outburst, stating that he "owed a fair portion of his celebrity" to the tabloids and photo agencies in question.

2007 inquest

An inquest into the deaths of Diana and Dodi started on 8 January 2007 under Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss.

On 24 April 2007, she stepped down, saying she lacked the experience required to deal with an inquest with a jury. The role of coroner for the inquests will be transferred to Lord Justice Scott Baker. Lord Scott Baker formally took up the role on 11 June.

On 27 July 2007, Lord Scott Baker, following representations for the lawyers of the interested parties, issued a list of issues likely to be raised at the Inquest, many of which have been dealt with in great detail by Operation Paget.

The issues identified are:

1. Whether driver error on the part of Henri Paul caused or contributed to the cause of the collision
2. Whether Henri Paul's ability to drive was impaired through drink or drugs
3. Whether a Fiat Uno or any other vehicle caused or contributed to the collision
4. Whether the actions of the Paparazzi caused or contributed to the cause of the collision
5. Whether the road/tunnel layout and construction were inherently dangerous and if so whether this contributed to the collision
6. Whether any bright/flashing lights contributed to or caused the collision and, if so, their source
7. Whose decision it was that the Princess of Wales and Dodi Al Fayed should leave from the rear entrance to the Ritz and that Henri Paul should drive the vehicle
8. Henri Paul's movements between 7 and 10 pm on 30 August 1997
9. The explanation for the money in Henri Paul's possession on 30 August 1997 and in his bank account
10. Whether Andanson was in Paris on the night of the collision
11. Whether the Princess of Wales' life would have been saved if she had reached hospital sooner or if her medical treatment had been different
12. Whether the Princess of Wales was pregnant
13. Whether the Princess of Wales and Dodi Al Fayed were about to announce their engagement
14. Whether and, if so in what circumstances, the Princess of Wales feared for her life
15. The circumstances relating to the purchase of the ring
16. The circumstances in which the Princess of Wales' body was embalmed
17. Whether the evidence of Tomlinson throws any light on the collision
18. Whether the British or any other security services had any involvement in the collision
19. Whether there was anything sinister about (i) the Cherruault burglary or (ii) the disturbance at the Big Pictures agency
20. Whether correspondence belonging to the Princess of Wales (including some from Prince Philip) has disappeared, and if so the circumstances

The Inquests began officially on 2 October 2007 with the swearing of a jury of six women and five men. Lord Scott-Baker delivered a lengthy opening statement giving general instructions to the jury and introducing the evidence. The BBC reported that Mohammed Fayed, having earlier reiterated his claim that his son and Diana were murdered by the Royal Family, immediately criticised the opening statement as biased.

See also

• Diana: Last Days of a Princess (2007 television docudrama)
• The Queen (2006 film)
• Princess Diana's Revenge 2006 novel which engages with conspiracy theories relating to Diana's death.
• Concert for Diana, 2007 rock concert to commemorate Diana.

Further reading

• Noel Botham: The Assassination of Princess Diana. Metro, London 2004, ISBN 1-84358-139-6. 
• Joy Jones Daymon: Princess Diana: The Lamb to the Slaughter. Writers Club Press, Lincoln, Nebr. 2002, ISBN 0-595-24362-2. 
• Peter Hounam, and Derek McAdam: Who Killed Diana? Vision Paperbacks, London 1998, ISBN 1-901250-17-2. 
• Penny Junor: Charles: Victim or Villain? HarperCollins, London 1998, ISBN 0-00-255900-5. 
• Penny Junor: The Firm: The Troubled Life of the House of Windsor. HarperCollins, London 2005, ISBN 0-00-710215-1. 
• Trevor Rees-Jones, with Moira Johnston: The Bodyguard's Story: Diana, the Crash, and the Sole Survivor. Little, Brown, London 2000, ISBN 0-316-85508-1. 
• Simone Simmons, with Ingrid Seward: Diana: The Last Word. Orion, London 2005, ISBN 0-7528-6875-6. 

External links

• Princess Diana dead after Paris car crash: Companion Dodi Fayed, chauffeur also killed, CNN, August. Abgerufen am 1. Juni 2006 
• Princess Diana dies in Paris crash, BBC, August. Abgerufen am 1. Juni 2006  (On This Day archive)
• Princess Diana driver was 'drunk and speeding', BBC, September. Abgerufen am 1. Juni 2006  (On This Day archive)
• Princess Diana's funeral watched by millions, BBC, September. Abgerufen am 1. Juni 2006  (On This Day archive)
• Vorlage:Cite episode
• Vanessa Allen: Diana chief: We've found fresh clues: Top cop reveals new forensics, new witnesses, Daily Mirror, Mai. Abgerufen am 1. Juni 2006 
• [Vialls]: Prince Charles Implicated in Murder of Princess Diana Logic dictates Princess Di was deliberately frightened into writing the incriminating letter before her death, but science suggests that she did not write the letter at all. 9. Januar 2004; abgerufen im 1. Januar 1. 
• Diana crash inquiry report: Final report by Paris prosecutor's office. Abgerufen am 1. Juni 2006.  and [3]
• The Alma Tunnel: Four photos of the accident in the Alma Tunnel. Abgerufen am 1. Juni 2006. 
• Alma.jpg: Diana crash map. Abgerufen am 1. Juni 2006.  (JPEG 138 Kb)
• Tod der Lady Diana Spencer: Die nachweisbaren Fakten (Death of Lady Diana Spencer: The provable facts). Abgerufen am 1. Juni 2006.  Vorlage:De icon
• Many detail-informations: Did British Intelligence Orchestrate Princess Diana's Death?
• Text of the doctors' statement announcing Diana's death
• iPod video record of tributes in Kensington Gardens 1
• iPod video record of tributes 2: night & day
• Prince Charles Implicated in Murder of Princess Diana...(debunking)
• Death of a Princess
• [Vialls]: Prince Charles Implicated in Murder of Princess Diana Logic dictates Princess Di was deliberately frightened into writing the incriminating letter before her death, but science suggests that she did not write the letter at all. 9. Januar 2004; abgerufen im 1. Januar 1. 
• The life and poignant death of Diana's driver. Abgerufen im 1. Januar 1 
• Official Website of the Inquests into the deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales, and Dodi Fayed
• "The Murder of Princess Diana" Movie Trailer