PARIS, Nov 28: Three photographers who took pictures of Britain’s Princess Diana and her friend Dodi al Fayed in their car on the night of their fatal 1997 crash did not break French privacy laws, a court ruled on Friday.

Christian Martinez of the Angeli agency and freelancer Fabrice Chassery took photos of the couple as they lay in their crumpled Mercedes, which crashed in a tunnel after a high-speed pursuit through Paris by paparazzi on motorbikes.

Jacques Langevin, who worked at the time for the Sygma agency, took shots of them shortly before the crash as they left Paris’s Ritz hotel.

None of the pictures in question have been published.

The case, triggered by a complaint by Dodi’s father Mohamed al Fayed, hinged on a precedent in French law under which the interior of a car is deemed private, even on a public road.

No other case linked to the crash now stands before French justice. France refused last year to try the chasing paparazzi for manslaughter and Britain has refused calls by Mohamed al Fayed to open an official inquiry.

“Unless Monsieur al Fayed persists with his procedural flights of fancy, I think this judgment will put an end to the affair,” said Jean-Louis Pelletier, lawyer for Chassery.

“It is unfortunately a very ordinary case, or would have been had Princess Diana not been at the centre of it. It is the story of an intoxicated driver who was driving too fast.”

Al Fayed’s lawyer said he had appealed against the verdict.

“He (al Fayed) is extremely saddened by this,” said Bernard Dartevelle. “For him it is unfortunately the logical consequence of what has happened in this affair since the start — namely, that France wants no part of it.”

Al Fayed — owner of London’s famed Harrods department store — had sought symbolic damages of one euro. He was not present in court. Similar charges against five other photographers had already been dropped.

Under France’s strict privacy laws, the photographers could in theory have been jailed for a year and ordered to pay fines of 45,000 euros ($53,000). However, the public prosecutor had requested only suspended prison sentences.

The decision will be seen by some in France as a victory for press freedom in a country where privacy is highly prized.

“In a context like this one, which is highly charged both emotionally and in terms of media coverage, this is a decision that will be seen as brave and above all, taken in freedom,” said Langevin’s lawyer Francois Stefanaggi.

The verdict follows fresh controversy in Britain following the revelation by Diana’s former butler, Paul Burrell, of a secret letter in which the princess predicted her own death.

Burrell said the princess had given him a letter written in October 1996 in which she said someone was planning to kill her in a car crash, in order to allow her estranged husband Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, to remarry.

The report led Mohamed al Fayed, who has repeatedly alleged that Diana and his son were murdered by the British secret services because their relationship embarrassed the royal household, to renew his call for a full public inquiry.

The British government has rejected the demand.

The Egyptian businessman lost his bid to have the photographers chasing the car tried for manslaughter when France’s highest court ruled they were too far away to have caused the accident.

Evidence at the initial inquiry showed that the driver, Henri Paul, had been drunk at the time of the accident, something rejected by his parents.—Reuters