Mohamed Al Fayed to Sue U.S. for Diana Info

Aug. 30, 2000 -- It’s been almost three years since Princess Diana and her companion Dodi Fayed died in a Paris car crash, but Fayed’s father continues his search for answers.

Lawyers for Mohamed Al Fayed today announced they will file a lawsuit against U.S. government agencies they say possess information related to the crash.

The announcement comes on the eve of the third anniversary of the accident. Diana, Princess of Wales, Dodi Fayed and driver, Henri Paul, were killed early Aug. 31, 1997, when their speeding car slammed into the wall of a Paris tunnel. The sole survivor of the accident was Trevor Rees-Jones, a Fayed bodyguard.

U.S. lawyer Mark Zaid, representing Al Fayed, and John Macnamara, the director of security for Harrods Ltd., the London luxury department store Fayed owns, made the announcement at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

Documents Sought

In a videotaped statement, Al Fayed accused the CIA and other U.S. agencies were withholding the documents as part of a coverup.

“I believe they are withholding some of the documents at the request of the British secret services,” an emotional Al Fayed said. “They cannot afford to let the truth be known because they know exactly where the truth lies.”

In a letter read by Macnamara, Al Fayed said the National Security Agency has at least 39 documents totaling more than 1,000 pages relevant to the crash.

“There clearly is U.S. involvement in events prior to and subsequent to the tragedy,” Zaid said.

Zaid was careful not to allege that Diana’s death was part of a conspiracy between the British and American governments.

Zaid said the lawsuit, to be filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Washington, was an effort under the Freedom of Information Act, in order to further corroborate Al Fayed’s suspicions of how his son and Princess Diana died.

‘Romeo and Juliet’Al Fayed believes Diana and his son were killed as part of a British conspiracy arranged by the royal family because they did not like the prospect of Diana — the ex-wife of Prince Charles, the heir to the throne, and mother to Princes William and Harry, dating and perhaps marrying a Muslim Egyptian.

“I am now appealing to the American people to help me prove two innocent people were murdered by evil people controlled by a political regime,” Al Fayed said in his letter.

Al Fayed has accused Prince Philip, the husband of Queen Elizabeth II, of directing British secret services in organizing the crash that killed the couple, and has since announced that the prince is to be barred from Harrods.

“Evil and racist forces working through the British Security services murdered my son and Princess Diana,” Macnamara read from Al Fayed’s statement.

“The drama of Romeo and Juliet continues to repeat itself almost 500 years after William Shakespeare penned his tragic story.”

Inconsistencies Alleged

In his letter, Al Fayed said his team had found some inconsistencies in the French probe of the crash, which said the driver of the car in which the couple was riding had well over the legal limit of alcohol in his blood.

But Al Fayed says the sample of driver Paul’s blood was 21 percent carbon monoxide — an impossibility, Al Fayed says, because Paul allegedly died on impact and thus could not have breathed in the noxious fumes.

Al Fayed maintains Paul was also employed by MI 6, the British secret service, for three years.

He also alleges French investigators made their conclusion about Paul 36 hours after crash, long before Paul’s body samples could be properly analyzed.

This means the blood samples were either switched, or there was a mistake compounded by false statements, Zaid said.

Al Fayed’s legal team also said a “prominent Los Angeles attorney” and former American CIA agents had tried to get Al Fayed to pay $20 million for allegedly classified CIA documents revealing a British plot to murder Princess Diana. The U.S. government failed to fully investigate or prosecute the suspects, the team said.

They said they believe the documents offered were forgeries, but they think the CIA possesses actual documents detailing a similar plan.

The team also revealed a security photo of two men among the hundreds outside the Paris hotel from which Diana, Dodi Fayed and Paul left before their fateful trip. They said French authorities have not yet been able to identify the men, who they allege were British intelligence agents observing the operation.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.