Fayed's evidence may have decided Diana inquest

By Robert Woodward

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.