The former head of Britain's overseas intelligence service on Wednesday denied that princess Diana was killed on the orders of senior royals because she was pregnant and about to marry a Muslim.
Richard Dearlove was speaking at the coroner's inquest into the death of the princess and her lover Dodi Fayed, who were killed with their chauffeur Henri Paul in a car crash in Paris on August 30, 1997.
Fayed's father, Mohammed Al Fayed, has claimed the couple were executed as part of an establishment plot to prevent the mother of the future king marrying a Muslim and having his child. Fayed alleges that Diana was pregnant but other witnesses have testified that this was not the case.
Dearlove, making a rare exception to the principle in the security services never to comment on allegations made against it, flatly denied the allegations. Lawyer Ian Burnett, for the coroner, asked hiim: "During the whole of your time in SIS (the Secret Intelligence Service or MI6), from 1966 to 2004, were you ever aware of the service assassinating anyone?"
"No, I was not," Dearlove replied. "No assassinations under your authority in any of those posts?" Burnett asked. "No," Dearlove said. Dearlove headed the operations branch at MI6 from 1994 to 1999 and was its chief - referred to as "C" - from 1999 to 2004.
Al Fayed, the millionaire owner of the upmarket Harrods department store in London, on Monday claimed Diana and Dodi were murdered and that the princess told him she feared senior royals were trying to "get rid" of her.