SENIOR French officials who investigated Princess Diana’s death were blamed for a cover-up yesterday in a dramatic court ruling which condemned them for failing to check whether vital evidence was forged.
The Paris court ruled the French state was liable for “unnecessary delays” in investigating a mix-up over controversial blood tests.
Those tests were used to support hotly-contested claims that Henri Paul, the hotel security officer who drove Diana and her lover Dodi Fayed to their deaths in a Paris car crash, was drunk. In a sternly-worded ruling, which comes 12 years and two months after the crash, the civil Court of Grand Instance said there were “dysfunctional” aspects to the work of the French investigators who led the crash inquiry.
They concluded that a mix-up over Mr Paul’s post mortem examination, and especially his blood tests, “had the effect of delaying without legitimate motive the investigation for almost two years” after the French authorities refused to investigate a complaint lodged in 2002 that the tests were forged.
The court fined the French Republic a notional £5,000 to be paid in compensation to Dodi’s father, the Harrods tycoon Mohamed Al Fayed, who had taken the legal action in an attempt to prove that the blood tests were switched to make it appear that Mr Paul was drunk.
Mr Al Fayed insisted that the ruling, which is expected to pave the way for further legal action against those he has accused of withholding key evidence, showed that the French secret service had deliberately staged the delays to cover-up the forgery.
The Egyptian billionaire told the Daily Express yesterday: “I have always maintained that the secret services were responsible for the deaths of Diana and my son Dodi. I am delighted with this decision. It is a major step towards uncovering the truth about what really happened that night. I am delighted that the French court has recognised that I have been denied justice.” (Daily Express)