A long-awaited British police report that concludes the 1997 Paris car crash that killed Princess Diana and her boyfriend was an accident is "completely outrageous," the boyfriend’s father says.
Mohammed Al-Fayed insisted Wednesday that Princess Diana and Dodi Al-Fayed were murdered by British secret agents as part of a British establishment plot to prevent the former wife of Prince Charles, heir to the throne, from marrying a Muslim.
The three-year British police investigation into the crash concluded the deaths were a "tragic accident" and not a murder conspiracy. The report, publicly released Thursday, said that Diana’s driver, who was also killed, was drunk at the wheel of the black Mercedes when it crashed in a Paris underpass early on August 31, 1997 while speeding to avoid paparazzi photographers.
“No way. It’s shocking. It’s completely outrageous that the leading Scotland Yard officer can come up with such unbelievable judgment,” Mohammed Al-Fayed said on NBC’s “Today” show by satellite hookup from London. He was referring to John Stevens, the former London Metropolitan Police commissioner who headed the British investigation.
Conspiracy theoryMohammed Al-Fayed, the Egyptian-born multimillionaire businessman who owns London’s fashionable Harrods department store, contended Stevens had been “blackmailed to say what the British intelligence wanted him to say.”
Al-Fayed said Diana told him a few hours before the fatal crash that she was pregnant and she and Dodi planned to publicly announce their engagement the next day in London. He believes the British establishment couldn’t stomach the relationship and ordered an end to it.
"I am certain what happened to them because Diana was very close to me. She told me exactly what threats she had," he said.
Stevens' report, however, said there was no evidence to support Al-Fayed's claims. "We are certain that the Princess of Wales was not pregnant at the time of her death," the report said. "There was no conspiracy to murder any of the occupants of the car. This was a tragic accident."
Diana's sons Prince William and Prince Harry this week unveiled plans for a huge charity concert next year to mark the 10th anniversary of their mother's death. The "Concert for Diana" will be held at the new Wembley Stadium on July 1 -- which would have been her 46th birthday. Performers are expected to include Elton John among others.