The father of Princess Diana's Egyptian boyfriend reiterated Tuesday his claim that the couple were murdered by the British royal family, as an inquest into their deaths got underway.
Mohamed Al-Fayed made the comments shortly before 11 jurors were selected to begin six months of hearings into the deaths of Diana and Dodi Al-Fayed, who died 10 years ago in a Paris road tunnel crash.
"I'm fighting for 10 years. At last we're going to have a jury of ordinary people and I hope (for) the decision which I believe, that my son and Princess Diana have been murdered by the royal family," he said outside the High Court. "I'm hoping to God to find the murderers, the gangsters who have taken the lives of two innocent people," he told reporters.
In court five men and six women jurors were then selected, taking an oath to "diligently inquire" into the couple's deaths under the direction of Coroner Lord Justice Scott Baker. Under British law the inquest could only begin after the completion of an official probe, which last year concluded that the crash was a "tragic accident" involving a high-speed crash by a drunk driver.
The inquest - legally required when a British citizen dies an unnatural death abroad and the body is repatriated - has a narrow remit, seeking only to identify the deceased and find how, when and where they died.
No blame is determined and the verdict must not identify anyone as having criminal or civil liability. Possible verdicts include natural causes, accident, suicide, unlawful or lawful killing or industrial disease. The inquest may also produce an open verdict if there is insufficient evidence to reach a conclusion. If a verdict of unlawful killing was returned, it could leave open the possibility of civil legal action by Al-Fayed.
Diana, 36, and Dodi Fayed, 42, were in a Mercedes driven by Fayed's chauffeur Henri Paul, 41, that hit an underpass pillar on August 31, 1997 as it sped away from chasing paparazzi photographers. Diana's bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones, was the only survivor, but suffered serious injuries.
The inquest will examine the embalming of Diana's body, her post-mortem, the hours before the crash, suggestions she was engaged to Fayed, the alleged purchase of a ring, claims she was pregnant and bodyguards' evidence. Jurors were handed maps of the route taken on the fateful night in Paris as well as photographs of the wrecked Mercedes in the underpass.
Baker said the jurors would be asked to consider how the driver of the car lost control and smashed into the 13th pillar in the tunnel and to consider whether the events were by "accident or design." They would be asked to look at the nature of the collision with a white Fiat Uno as well as a report of a blinding light in the tunnel.
They were also shown a press photograph of the couple kissing during a Mediterranean holiday aboard the Fayed yacht as well as one with Diana in a leopard-print bathing suit which fuelled rumours she was pregnant. But Baker reminded them it was taken before there was any sign of an intimate relationship with Dodi.
Fayed, owner of London department store Harrods, maintains that Diana, whose eldest son William is second-in-line to the throne, was killed in an intelligence plot orchestrated by Prince Philip to prevent her potential marriage to a Muslim. He has sought, so far unsuccessfully, to force Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip to testify.
Shortly before the inquest started, Fayed's spokesman said he hoped it could finally uncover the truth about the crash. "This is the last best chance to get at the plain unvarnished truth about what happened 10 years and two months ago," said spokesman Michael Cole.
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