April 01, 2008	Tuesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 23, 1429

LONDON, March 31: The coroner investigating Princess Diana’s death said on Monday there was no evidence she was murdered by British intelligence, as claimed by her boyfriend’s father. The assessment by Lord Justice Scott Baker came as he began summing up the inquest into the death of Diana and Dodi Fayed, which began in October.

“There is no evidence that the Duke of Edinburgh ordered Diana’s execution, and there is no evidence that the secret intelligence service or any other government agency organised it,” he said.

Mohammed Al-Fayed, the tycoon owner of London’s Harrods department store, believes Diana and his son Dodi were engaged and has claimed Prince Philip was linked to an establishment plot to kill them and stop her marrying a Muslim.

Specifically, he has claimed that the prince, husband of Queen Elizabeth II and Diana’s former father-in-law, ordered the killing of the couple, who died with chauffeur Henri Paul in a 1997 Paris car crash.

But starting his summary of the inquest, the coroner said many of Al-Fayed’s theories were “demonstrably without foundation.”

“Various propositions ... have been shown to be so demonstrably without foundation that they are no longer being pursued by Mohamed Al-Fayed’s lawyer, even if he still continues to believe in their truth in his own mind.

“They are not being pursued because there is not a shred of evidence to support them.”Two previous police investigations – one French and the other British – have concluded that the couple’s death was a tragic accident fuelled by a chauffeur who was over the drink-drive limit speeding to get away from chasing paparazzi.

Since opening on October 2 last year, the inquest into Diana’s death has heard some 250 witnesses, while the jurors also travelled to Paris to see the scene of the accident for themselves.

Diana’s former butler Paul Burrell was among the most high profile witnesses to take the stand, while others whose testimony gripped the court include Pakistani surgeon Hasnat Khan, who had a two-year romance with Diana.

Al-Fayed, who is also owner of the Ritz Hotel in Paris from where Diana and his son took their last doomed car ride, gave evidence in February, calling Prince Philip a “Nazi” and a “racist.”

On Monday the coroner appeared to suggest heavily to the jury that they should dismiss the conspiracy theories.

“For the last 10-and-a-half years there have been those who claimed that what happened in the Alma Tunnel was no tragic accident but a staged collision intended to cause .. the death” of Diana and Dodi, he said.

“There are no doubt those who genuinely believe this (the murder theory) to be the case and will continue to do so regardless of any verdict you return,” he said.

But he added: “You have heard the evidence and it is your decision that matters and not anyone else’s.—AFP