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CNN Live At Daybreak
Official British Inquest Into Princess Diana's Death
Aired January 06, 2004 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Will this be the final word on Princess Diana's death? We'll have to wait to find out now.
CNN's Paula Hancocks have the latest on the inquest on Diana.
There is breaking news on this. The inquest has now been delayed. Why?
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, what the coroner has done, Michael Burgess (ph), is he opened the inquest just about an hour ago, and then he's going to resume the inquest, he says, in about 12 to 15 months.
So, it's actually been adjourned. This is what we were expecting, because he's going to take at least 12 to 15 months to try and access all of the information that he needs, the evidence, from the French investigation as well.
So, we were expecting him to adjourn it for about six months. But the fact it's 12 to 15 months, he said, is because the legal processes in France have not yet finished. Of course, Diana, Princess of Wales, and Dodi Fayed, her companion, died in a car crash in Paris. So, that's where the initial investigation started.
Also, there are some appeals processes to finish in France, some of them by Mohammed Fayed, the owner of Harrods and Dodi's father. He was here at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Center a little earlier on today to listen to that inquest.
Now, the coroner will be going down to the south of England to a separate inquest into Dodi Fayed's death. There are two sets of inquiries, but that is expected to be adjourned as well, while the coroner takes time to read through all of the evidence he has and then decide which witnesses, if any, he wants to recall -- Carol.
COSTELLO: To me, this sounds like a stalling tactic, but it's not, right?
HANCOCKS: It's not, no. There are legal reasons for this. The fact that some of these processes have not been completed -- some of the appeals have not been completed in France means that the coroner cannot access those legal trials as yet. And he's going to need this time to access all of those files so he can read through them.
It's expected to be about 6,000 pages of documents just from the official two-year investigation over in Paris, 300 witness statements. There's a tremendous amount of paperwork for the coroner to get through, and that's before he even starts to think about who he wants to speak to.
This morning he did give just a briefing, really, setting out the ground rules of what an inquest is, what he's going to be looking for. And also, he did mention that he does regret any possible intrusion into private grief, obviously referring to Prince William and Prince Harry, and saying it's up to family members themselves of how involved they want to be in this process -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right, Paula Hancocks reporting live by phone from London this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired January 6, 2004 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Will this be the final word on Princess Diana's death? We'll have to wait to find out now.
CNN's Paula Hancocks have the latest on the inquest on Diana.
There is breaking news on this. The inquest has now been delayed. Why?
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, what the coroner has done, Michael Burgess (ph), is he opened the inquest just about an hour ago, and then he's going to resume the inquest, he says, in about 12 to 15 months.
So, it's actually been adjourned. This is what we were expecting, because he's going to take at least 12 to 15 months to try and access all of the information that he needs, the evidence, from the French investigation as well.
So, we were expecting him to adjourn it for about six months. But the fact it's 12 to 15 months, he said, is because the legal processes in France have not yet finished. Of course, Diana, Princess of Wales, and Dodi Fayed, her companion, died in a car crash in Paris. So, that's where the initial investigation started.
Also, there are some appeals processes to finish in France, some of them by Mohammed Fayed, the owner of Harrods and Dodi's father. He was here at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Center a little earlier on today to listen to that inquest.
Now, the coroner will be going down to the south of England to a separate inquest into Dodi Fayed's death. There are two sets of inquiries, but that is expected to be adjourned as well, while the coroner takes time to read through all of the evidence he has and then decide which witnesses, if any, he wants to recall -- Carol.
COSTELLO: To me, this sounds like a stalling tactic, but it's not, right?
HANCOCKS: It's not, no. There are legal reasons for this. The fact that some of these processes have not been completed -- some of the appeals have not been completed in France means that the coroner cannot access those legal trials as yet. And he's going to need this time to access all of those files so he can read through them.
It's expected to be about 6,000 pages of documents just from the official two-year investigation over in Paris, 300 witness statements. There's a tremendous amount of paperwork for the coroner to get through, and that's before he even starts to think about who he wants to speak to.
This morning he did give just a briefing, really, setting out the ground rules of what an inquest is, what he's going to be looking for. And also, he did mention that he does regret any possible intrusion into private grief, obviously referring to Prince William and Prince Harry, and saying it's up to family members themselves of how involved they want to be in this process -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right, Paula Hancocks reporting live by phone from London this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
