Al-Fayed sees royal family, Blair, medics in 'murder' plot

Feb 18, 2008, 17:05 GMT

Egyptian tycoon Mohammed al Fayed Monday implicated Britain\'s royal family, the American CIA, former Prime Minister Tony Blair and the French judicial and medical services in an alleged plot to kill his son Dodi and Princess Diana in Paris in August 1997. EPA/RICHARD LEWIS

London - Egyptian tycoon Mohammed al Fayed Monday implicated Britain's royal family, the American CIA, former Prime Minister Tony Blair and the French judicial and medical services in an alleged plot to kill his son Dodi and Princess Diana in Paris in August 1997.

'I've been fighting for 10 years. This is the moment for me to say exactly what I feel happened to my son and Diana,' said the 75-year-old businessman as he strode towards the court building in London where an inquest into the deaths is being held.

The couple had been 'slaughtered by gangsters' at the behest of the Duke of Edinburgh and his son, Prince Charles, the former husband of Diana, he claimed.

Al Fayed answered 'yes' when asked whether he stood by the claim that he had 'no doubt whatsoever that my son and Princess Diana were murdered by the British security services on the orders of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.'

Al-Fayed, a multi-millionaire who owns London's Harrods department store, and the Ritz Hotel in Paris, launched a savage attack on Prince Philip during his highly emotional testimony.

He branded Philip, the 86-year-old husband of Queen Elizabeth II, as a 'Nazi' and a 'racist' and said, 'It's time to send him back to Germany from where he comes.'

'You want to know his original name - it ends with Frankenstein,' al-Fayed said.

At one stage breaking down when talking about the death of his son and heir, al Fayed repeated his charge that the British royal family could 'not accept' the prospect of his son becoming the stepfather of Diana's two boys, the princes William and Harry.

He also said Diana had told him that she knew Philip and Prince Charles were 'trying to get rid of her,' al-Fayed said.

However, he did not believe that the queen was involved in the conspiracy. 'The queen is not so important,' said al Fayed.

Later in the hearing, al Fayed was presented with a 2006 letter in which he referred to the 'prime minister and his henchmen' in connection with the deaths.

'The list of conspirators, those who are involved in this, we can add Tony Blair to this list?' asked Richard Horwell, defence council for the Metropolitan Police.

'You can,' replied al Fayed.

He claimed that Diana herself had told him in a phone call that she was pregnant.

'Diana told me on the telephone that she was pregnant. I'm the only person they told. They told me they were engaged and would announce their engagement on Monday morning. She would speak to her sons when she returned from Paris,' al-Fayed told the inquest.

Driver Henri Paul, who also died in the crash, was a paid informant of the security services in Britain and France, as were part of the amulance crew and medical staff in Paris who 'made sure she bled to death,' al Fayed alleged.

He said his son Dodi had told him one hour before his death that he was going to ask Diana to marry him.

Asked why he had not shared the 'momentous news' with anyone at the time, al Fayed said: 'This was an hour before they were killed. What do you want me to spread, you think I'm going to announce their engagement and they are already dead?'

The princess and Dodi died in a car crash in Paris on August 31, 1977, after a brief holiday together on the al-Fayed yacht in the south of France.