Princess Diana accuses Charles from the grave
January 07, 2004 Edition -1
Michael Holden and Kate Kelland
London - Britain has launched a top-level police investigation into the death of Princess Diana as a tabloid newspaper named Prince Charles as the person she suspected of plotting to kill her.
More than six years after Diana died in a car crash in Paris, royal coroner Michael Burgess yesterday opened an inquest into her death by saying Britain's top police officers should investigate claims that her death was not an accident but a deliberate plot.
"I am aware that there is speculation that (her death was) not the result of a sad but relatively straightforward road traffic accident in Paris," Burgess told the inquest, which was packed with hundreds of journalists from around the world.
"I have asked the Metropolitan Police commissioner to make inquiries."
Diana died at the age of 36, along with her lover Dodi al-Fayed and their chauffeur Henri Paul, in the August 1997 crash.
In a front-page splash yesterday, the Daily Mirror tabloid newspaper named Charles as the person Diana had claimed was "planning an accident" to kill her.
Diana made the allegation in a letter she gave to her butler and confidant, Paul Burrell.
The Mirror quoted from the letter Diana wrote just 10 months before her death.
"This particular phase in my life is the most dangerous," it said. "My husband is planning 'an accident' in my car, brake failure and serious head injury."
A spokesperson for Prince Charles declined to comment.
Royal biographer Robert Lacey said Diana's claim that her husband wanted her dead reduced the credibility of the allegation.
"It does raise the question about Diana's state of mind, her own paranoia, her sense of panic."
Burgess said the inquest would be adjourned for 12 to 15 months, meaning no evidence will be heard for at least a year.
"I have to separate fact from fiction and speculation," he said in a half-hour-long speech.
"Speculation and speculative reports are not themselves evidence, however frequently and authoritatively they may be published, broadcast or repeated." - Reuters
