UK reopens formal inquest on Diana death
The judge overseeing official inquiries into the deaths of Princess Diana and her lover Dodi al-Fayed in 1997 ruled on Monday that royal officials would not sit on any jury considering how they died.
Because Diana was part of the royal family when she died, any jury, according to convention, would usually be made up of members of the royal household.
But at a preliminary hearing on inquests, which will officially determine how the couple died, Judge Elizabeth Butler-Sloss said this would be inappropriate.
In the decade since the accident, a host of conspiracy theories has flourished suggesting the couple were murdered because their relationship embarrassed Britain’s royal family.
Three weeks ago, a British police investigation ruled that their Paris car crash was an accident and the two were not the victims of an elaborate murder plot.
A two-year French investigation had already come to that conclusion, but under British law an inquest is needed formally to determine the cause of death when someone dies unnaturally.
The lawyer representing Queen Elizabeth, John Nutting, said it would be ”undesirable, even perhaps invidious” to do this and the need for strictly unbiased scrutiny meant a jury of members of the public would be more appropriate.
Butler-Sloss, who is considering whether there should be any jury at all, agreed, saying: ”It is entirely inappropriate for me to ask for a jury from the royal household.”
The death of the ”People’s Princess” — divorced from heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles and the world’s most photographed woman — sparked an outpouring of grief in Britain.
Diana, who was 36, Fayed (42) and their chauffeur Henri Paul died when their Mercedes limousine smashed at high speed into a pillar in a Paris road tunnel after they sped away from the Ritz Hotel, pursued by paparazzi on motorbikes.
Public confidence
The jury issue and whether the inquests should be conducted together was the central debate during the hearing held in the grandeur of a wood-panelled chamber at London’s High Court in front of some of Britain’s top lawyers and Diana’s sister, Lady Sarah McCorquodale.
Michael Mansfield, the lawyer for Dodi’s father, Mohamed, who believes the couple were murdered, wants a jury inquest.
”We say these inquests provide a truly exceptional situation, which as far as anyone is aware has not occurred in the past,” Mansfield said, saying ”public confidence” in the judicial system demanded there should be a jury.
He cast doubt on whether Butler-Sloss should legally oversee the inquests and criticised police for releasing their report.
Butler-Sloss said that if she had jurisdiction over the inquests, they would be held together and hear evidence from a minimum of 40 witnesses, mostly French.
The French investigation ruled out foul play, saying Paul was responsible because he was drunk, under the influence of anti-depressants and driving too fast.
But that has not stopped sceptics pointing the finger of blame at British spies acting on the orders of members of the royal family.
An inquest cannot apportion blame but can rule that the death was ”unnatural”, due to violence or an accident. — Reuters