October 03, 2007	Wednesday	Ramazan 20, 1428

LONDON: The father of Princess Diana’s Egyptian boyfriend reiterated on 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 Aug 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.

—AFP