Diana's letter names Charles
2004-01-06 14:56
London - Inquests were opened into the deaths more than six years ago of Princess Diana and her lover Dodi Fayed on Tuesday, as a British tabloid named Prince Charles as the man Diana accused of planning a car accident for her in a letter she wrote before her death.
Royal Coroner Michael Burgess opened the inquest into Diana's death at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in Westminster but immediately adjourned it to 2005. It is the first inquiry in Britain into the deaths that occurred on August 31, 1997.
Burgess asked the police to investigate whether the car crash in which Diana and Dodi Fayed died was anything other than a straightforward accident. He predicted the proceedings would arouse widespread interest.
The Daily Mirror, which last year serialised the memoirs of Paul Burrell, the royal butler who became one of Diana's confidants during the last years of her life, revealed on Tuesday that Diana had identified Charles as the senior royal trying to have her killed.
'My husband is planning an accident'
Some 10 months before she died, Diana wrote in a letter to Burrell: "My husband is planning 'an accident' in my car, brake failure and serious head injury... to make the path clear for him to marry." The name was blacked out when the letter, which is to be handed to the coroner, was first published.
The Mirror on Tuesday reported Burrell as saying: "It has fulfilled its purpose. I wanted to give force to the argument that an inquest must be held."
Herve Stephan, the judge who conducted the French inquiry, found the couple's chauffeur Henri Paul had been speeding while under the influence of alcohol and anti-depressants. Paul also died. The sole survivor was Diana's bodyguard Trevor Rees Jones, who was severely injured and remembers little of the accident.
Dodi Fayed's father Mohamed, owner of the Harrods department store in London, remains convinced that "British intelligence" was behind the accident and has pursued efforts in England and separately through the courts in Scotland to have a full public inquiry. The government has rejected holding an inquiry.
The Guardian reported on Tuesday that Mohamed Fayed believed it was "common sense" to join the two inquests. "You have the same set of witnesses giving essentially the same evidence, and if you hold separate ones you could come to different conclusions based on the same evidence," a source close to Fayed told the paper.
"It makes no sense to have separate hearings where people have died within inches of each other," he added.
Speculation surrounding the deaths refuses to die down. There have been repeated reports that Diana, 36 at the time of her death was pregnant by Dodi, who was 42, and that she planned to marry him, although Burrell has been scornful of this rumour.
Ahead of the opening of the inquests, Burgess said he would not call witnesses on the opening day.
"I stated in October 2003 that I intended to hold inquests into the deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales and Dodi Fayed. The opening of these inquests has been the subject of discussion and correspondence with the families for some time but because of the complexity of the situation the final arrangements have taken rather longer to complete than I would have wished." - Sapa-DPA
- SAPA