[December 17, 2013]LONDON (Reuters) — British police on
Tuesday ruled out reopening an investigation into the death of Princess
Diana in a Paris car crash in 1997 after examining an accusation the
elite SAS commando regiment was involved in her death.
London's Metropolitan Police said in August they were assessing
new information about the deaths of Diana, Dodi al Fayed and their
driver after a high speed car chase with paparazzi photographers
through the streets of Paris.
Media reports at the time said the police had been passed new
information from the parents-in-law of a former soldier.
"Whilst there is a possibility the alleged comments in relation to
the SAS's involvement in the deaths may have been made, there is no
credible evidence to support a theory that such claims had any basis
in fact," police said in a statement.
The police concluded that there "is no evidential basis upon which
to open any criminal investigation".
The funeral of Diana, who had divorced heir-to-the-throne Prince
Charles in 1996, brought huge crowds onto the streets of London.
Dodi's father, Mohammed al Fayed, the former owner of Harrods
department store, alleged that the couple had been killed on the
orders of the British establishment.
But an investigation by a former head of London police, John
Stevens, concluded there was no evidence of murder and that their
driver, Henri Paul, had been drunk and going too fast.
A 2008 inquest in London returned a verdict of unlawful killing and
said Paul and the photographers were to blame for the deaths on
August 31 in a Paris tunnel but speculation has continued in tabloid
newspapers of an assassination plot.
Investigators in France have also dismissed allegations of murder
and in 2008 Mohammed al Fayed announced he was abandoning his
10-year campaign to prove the couple were murdered.
A royal spokesman has said there would be no comment.
(Reporting
by Richa Naidu in Bangalore, Belinda Goldsmith in London, editing by
Lisa Shumaker and Ralph Boulton)
