Princess Diana Inquest Hearings To Be Held

LONDON Sept. 7, 2006— -- The first hearings in the inquests into the deathof Princess Diana will take place early next year, judicialofficials said Thursday.

The courts service said the inquest would be led by DameElizabeth Butler-Sloss, a retired senior judge.

Butler-Sloss, former head of the High Court's family division,will become Deputy Coroner of the Queen's Household next month soshe can lead the inquest into the Aug. 31, 1997 deaths of Diana andher companion Dodi Fayed.

The judge replaces royal coroner Michael Burgess, who pulled outof the inquest in July, citing a heavy workload.

Butler-Sloss will determine whether there will be separateinquests into the deaths of Diana and Fayed, or a single hearing,and whether a jury or the judge alone will decide the cause ofdeath.

The inquest is awaiting a report by Lord Stevens, the formerhead of London's Metropolitan Police, whom Burgess asked toinvestigate the Paris car crash that killed the couple and theirdriver, Henri Paul.

Rumors and conspiracy theories continue to swirl around thecrash, despite a French judge's 1999 ruling that it was anaccident. An investigation concluded that Paul had been drinkingand was driving at high speed.

Stevens said in January that the investigation was "far morecomplex than any of us thought" but did not specify what he meant.