Judge to Al Fayed: Back Up Diana Murder Allegations

LONDON -- Almost 10 years after her death in a Paris car crash, the drama surrounding Diana, Princess of Wales, has yet to end.

For years, Harrod's department store mogul Mohammed Al Fayed, father of Dodi Fayed, who also died in the crash, has maintained that the deaths were the result of a murder plot by the Duke of Edinburgh and British security rather than an accidental crash, as has traditionally been accepted. On Friday, Al Fayed won a court battle to have a jury preside at the inquest.

But only a few days later, Baroness Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, the coroner who will lead the inquest into the deaths of the princess and Fayed, said that the jury will consider a verdict of murder only if Al Fayed can produce evidence to back up his claims. She accused Al Fayed of making claims "without a shred of evidence," saying that any assistance he could provide would be "enormously helpful."

An inquest, long the staple of British detective fiction, is required by British law in cases of unnatural death and assembles evidence to determine the death's cause. The official police investigation into the deaths concluded last year that the crash that killed Diana, Fayed and their driver was an accident. A French inquiry found the driver, Henri Paul, at fault because he was drunk, speeding and under the influence of antidepressants.

Diana, Fayed and Paul were killed in Paris in 1997 when their Mercedes crashed into a pillar in a tunnel while they attempted to escape from paparazzi.

Preliminary hearings are currently taking place for Diana's inquest, during which the coroner decides what possibilities and evidence will be considered.

Al Fayed's lawyer, Michael Mansfield, said Al Fayed had already provided his evidence to the police for the official investigation. Mansfield called for Charles, the Prince of Wales and Diana's ex-husband, along with his father, Queen Elizabeth II's husband the Duke of Edinburgh, to be called as witnesses.