Fayed's evidence may have decided Diana inquest

LONDON (Reuters) - Obsessed by his belief that Princess Diana's death was orchestrated by Britain's royal family, Mohamed al-Fayed may have unwittingly convinced an inquest that her Paris car crash was no conspiracy.

Mohamed Al-Fayed had waited 10 years to tell a court that Diana and his son Dodi were murdered in Paris because the British Establishment could not bear "a person who is different religion, naturally tanned, curly hair" being associated with the mother of its future king.

But a jury ruled on Monday that Diana and her lover were unlawfully killed by the grossly negligent driving of their chauffeur and paparazzi photographers pursuing them into a Paris road tunnel in 1997.

Mohamed al-Fayed's extraordinary evidence to Court 73 at the Royal Courts of Justice in February revealed a man warped by grief and an overwhelming sense of injustice, who despised anyone that contradicted his version of history.

The Egyptian-born businessman accused Prince Philip, the princess' ex-husband Prince Charles, intelligence services on both sides of the English Channel and even Diana's sister of collaborating in the cover-up surrounding her death -- the crime of the century in his words.

Al-Fayed said Philip, the husband of Queen Elizabeth, was a Nazi and the power behind the throne in "this Dracula family".

It was Philip who had directed the "slaughter" of Diana and Dodi in August 1997, and then Prime Minister Tony Blair and his "henchmen" ministers were also elements of "dark forces".

Philip's web of influence extended to the ambulance crew who took Diana to hospital after the couple's Mercedes crashed in a tunnel and even the French embalmer of her body, al-Fayed said.

"BANANA REPUBLIC"

"We are in a banana republic... It's just unbelievable, I can't believe this could happen in a democracy," said al-Fayed who has distrusted the British Establishment ever since he was cold-shouldered over a request for a British passport.

Central to his conspiracy theory was a phone call he said he had received from Dodi and Diana one hour before the fatal crash. They said the Princess was pregnant and the two were going to announce their engagement within 48 hours.

What about the "avalanche" of proof that Diana could not have been pregnant, the lawyer for the inquest's coroner asked. This was all "baloney", replied al-Fayed who maintained he was the "closest person to her".

His memory of important events was often hazy -- for instance, he could not remember who had rung to tell him of the fatal accident. "I would just like to know what you are after. You want to put to me that I am hallucinating?" he said after the coroner's lawyer tried to jog his memory.

All doubts about his worth as a witness, which the court heard had been questioned in previous cases and inquiries, were swept aside as proof of his victimization by the Establishment.

Judges were "stooges" who were prejudiced against him, al-Fayed said.

"I lived here for 40 years, I give my life to the country, I pay billions in taxes, I employ hundreds of thousands of people, I pay hundreds of millions in charity. How can I be treated this way?"

Al-Fayed said he believed the jury hearing the inquest, made up of "fair-minded ordinary people", would see things his way and he had vowed to accept its decision.

However, this was before Lord Justice Scott Baker, the inquest's coroner, highlighted the "straightforward unreality" of al-Fayed's thesis.

"His beliefs may be genuine but there is no doubt that many of them have no support in evidence at all," the judge said in his summing-up, directing the jury not to rule that Diana and Dodi were unlawfully killed in a staged accident.

If events over the past 10 years and in Court 73 are anything to go by, al-Fayed is very unlikely to take this verdict as the final word about the death of his beloved son and the woman who may, or may not, have been his fiancee.

After Monday's verdict he insisted the Queen and her husband should have been called as witnesses.

"I have always believed that Prince Philip and the Queen hold valuable evidence that only they know," he said.

"No one should be above the law."