BRITISH POLICE HAVE said they have finished examining new information about the 1997 death of Diana, princess of Wales, but had found “no credible evidence” she was murdered.
Scotland Yard police headquarters announced in August it was checking the credibility of recently received information about the deaths of the princess and her boyfriend Dodi Fayed, including an allegation that she was murdered by a British military figure.
In a statement this morning, the Metropolitan Police Service said officers had conduced a scoping exercise to decided whether the information provided was sufficient to warrant a re-opening of the criminal investigation.
“Every reasonable line of enquiry was objectively pursued in order to fully evaluate any potential evidence,” it said.
Paris
Diana and Fayed were killed in a car crash in a Paris underpass in the early hours of 31 August, 1997, along with their driver, Henri Paul.
It is understood that the claim a member of elite British army regiment the Special Air Service (SAS) was involved was made by the former parents-in-law of an ex-soldier, based on information he had talked about in the past.
“The final conclusion is that whilst there is a possibility the alleged comments in relation to the SAS’s involvement in the deaths may have been made, there is no credible evidence to support a theory that such claims had any basis in fact,” said the police statement.
“Therefore the MPS are satisfied there is no evidential basis upon which to open any criminal investigation,” it added.
Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley has provided all involved parties with a summary report of the probe.
Conspiracy theories
Operation Paget was the name of the two-year police inquiry into the numerous conspiracy theories surrounding the crash.
Led by John Stevens, formerly Britain’s top policeman, it concluded in 2006 that all the allegations it assessed were without foundation.
It rejected the murder claims voiced by some, including Fayed’s father, the Egyptian tycoon Mohamed Al-Fayed.
Dodi Fayed, 42, and driver Paul – the deputy head of security at Al-Fayed’s plush Hotel Ritz in Paris – were pronounced dead at the scene of the crash. The Mercedes-Benz car had smashed into a pillar and spun around.
Diana, 36, the ex-wife of Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne, and the mother of Princes William and Harry, died later in hospital.
Bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones, a member of the Al-Fayed family’s protection team, survived.
Seeking to outrun chasing paparazzi photographers, Paul was found to have been speeding. His blood alcohol level was found to have been more than three times over the French limit.
- © AFP 2013 with additional reporting by Michelle Hennessy.
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