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Fury at plans for secret Diana inquest
Last updated at 14:37pm on 30.11.06
Secret inquest hearings into the death of Princess Diana are to be held in January, it has been revealed.
Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, who will act as coroner, has indicated that she wants the hearings to be held in private on 8 and 9 January, with no members of the press or public present.
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But the move has sparked a legal row with Harrods boss Mohamed Fayed, the father of Diana's boyfriend Dodi, who died alongside her in the 1997 Paris crash.
He called the move “an establishment cover-up” and today launched a legal bid for the hearings to be heard publicly.
English law states that inquests must be held in public, but early hearings need not be.
Mr Fayed also attacked the three-year, £3 million investigation into the crash carried out by former Met chief Lord Stevens, saying at least 13 eye-witnesses had not been interviewed.
Mr Fayed has repeatedly claimed that Princess Diana and his son were murdered in a plot by the British establishment.
He alleged that Dame Elizabeth had received a copy of Lord Stevens's report and "taken her first step towards ensuring that the cover-up continues".
He said: "A jury of 12 ordinary people should hear allthe facts and make up their own minds. I simply ask for honesty, fairness and openness. “For that reason, I have instructed my legal team to seek judicial review to compel Lady Butler-Sloss to hold all hearings in public so that Britain and the world at large may judge for themselves."
Mr Fayed also claimed that Lord Stevens's inquiry had "largely ignored" the views of "a number of eminent independent experts".
It emerged this week that the former Scotland Yard commissioner's conclusions could be made public before Christmas.
"Lord Stevens told me personally he would investigate this tragedy wherever the evidence took him," said Mr Fayed.
"For nearly three years, he and his team found plenty to investigate. Even though there are still vital issues to be explored and critical questions remain unanswered, suddenly a new coroner from within establishment ranks is appointed, and Lord Stevens is ordered to stop investigating and to submit a report to her which has been suppressed from me.
"Now they are trying to exclude the public, who overwhelmingly agree with me that these two precious people were murdered. It is shocking that the investigation has been deliberately cut short.
"Equally distasteful is theattempt to keep any hearings secret."
Dame Elizabeth was appointed to her new role after the Coroner of the Queen's Household, Michael Burgess, stepped down from the task in July.
In May, Lord Stevens said fresh witnesses and forensic evidence had been gathered, having earlier indicated the inquiry into the death of Diana was "far more complex than any of us thought".
Diana, 36, and Dodi Fayed, 42, were killed along with chauffeur Henri Paul when their Mercedes crashed in the Pont d'Alma tunnel in Paris on August 31 1997.
They were pursued by paparazzi photographers after leaving the Ritz Hotel for Mr Fayed's apartment.
Officials today confirmed that preliminary hearings in the inquest will take place early in the New Year.
Reader views (5)
No, there isn't, Nathan. However, most pre-inquest reviews are held in private, not for any sinister reason, but simply because they are essentially meetings between the coroner and the parties involved. A is a matter for the coroner in each case. Coroners are like judges and magistrates, in that they are totally independent of government. Despite the massive interest in this inquest, coroners must treat it like any other, so that the reasons for a sudden or unnatural death can be determined. I hope you agree it would be right for this inquest to be handled any differently, one way or the other, to any other of the 30,000 inquests held in England and Wales every year.
- Peter O'Connor, London, England
In response to Peter of the Department of Constitutional Affairs:
There is also no statutory requirement for pre-inquest hearings to be held in private either, is there? So what are the reasons for them not to be held in public given the public's interest in the circumstances surrounding the death of the mother of the future King?
- Nathan, London
The Coroners Rules 1984 state that every inquest should be held in public, provided that the coroner may direct that the public be excluded from an inquest or any part of an inquest if he considers that it would be in the interest of national security so to do. There is no statutory requirement for pre-inquest hearings to be held in public as they are not part of the inquest.
- Peter O'Connor, Department For Constitutional Affairs Press Office, London, England
Have we got nothing better to do than to waste more time and money on this.
- Nigel Salt, London
Is anyone else bored with this...
- Richard, London
