UK police probe to quash Diana conspiracy theories

BRITAIN: A British police inquiry into Princess Diana's death is expected to rule out foul play and seek to bury conspiracy theories of a murder plot that have abounded for almost a decade.

The finger of blame has been pointed at everyone from her ex-husband, heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles, to Britain's secret service.

But, after a three-year inquiry, security experts believe that Britain's former top police officer Sir John Stevens will rule that she died in a Paris car crash because chauffeur Henri Paul was drunk and driving too fast.

Harrods department storeowner Mohamed al Fayed, who wants a public inquiry into the crash, claims his son and Diana were murdered by British secret services because their relationship was embarrassing the British royal family.

Before the probe's findings were revealed, the plot thickened even further with claims in British tabloids that American spies monitored the phone in Diana's Ritz Hotel room without the knowledge of their British spy counterparts.

"Rubbish" was the curt reaction from the CIA. A two-year French inquiry blamed the crash on Paul, saying he was drunk, under the influence of anti-depressants and driving too fast.

Meanwhile an exclusive jeweller released a video which it said showed Dodi Al-Fayed picking up an engagement ring for Diana, Princess of Wales, just hours before both died in their 1997 Paris car crash.

In a letter to AFP, which obtained a copy of the video, the jewellery company Repossi said it was making the images available after receiving authorisation from Mohamed Al-Fayed, Dodi's wealthy father who has long insisted darker motives were behind the car accident. Repossi said it had not previously released the surveillance video on the advice of its lawyers, but did not elaborate.

The washed-out, black-and-white video, which was timestamped August 30, 1997, showed a man resembling Dodi Al-Fayed entering Repossi's upscale Place Vendome boutique in central Paris, which neighbours the Ritz Hotel owned by Mohamed Al-Fayed.

The man entered at 5:44 pm (1544 GMT), according to the timestamp, and stayed a total of seven minutes. During that time he can be seen examining items of jewellery pulled out of a case and placed on a table. At the end of his visit, he seems to pick something up off a table and then leaves.

In the early hours of the next morning, August 31, Dodi Al-Fayed, 42, and Diana, 36, were killed, fleeing papparazzi through the middle of Paris.

Emanuele Gobbo, a Repossi security employee who was in the boutique the day the video was taken, confirmed to AFP that Dodi Al-Fayed came in to choose a ring from a selection, some of which had been brought up from Repossi's Monaco outlet.

London, Thursday, Reuters, AFP