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Diana Inquest
Aired January 06, 2004 - 13:01 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.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: Moving on, was it a mundane traffic accident or a horrendous murder? Almost 6 1/2 years after Princess Diana was killed in a Paris car crash, a formal British inquest is under way, and nothing is out of bounds. That includes the mundane crash view held by Diana's former bodyguard, among others, and the murder view, held most visibly by the father of Diana's boyfriend, who also was killed that August night in 1997. Presumably, it also includes a 1996 letter from the princess to her confidante and right hand man, in which she claims someone was plotting to kill her by tampering with the brakes in her car. A London tabloid says that person that Diana accused was Prince Charles, though there is no way to verify that independently.
CNN's Sheila MacVicar is following all the twists and turns -- Sheila.
SHEILA MACVICAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Martin, indeed, more twists and turns, and more food for the conspiracists who are out there, and out there in great number. For a great many people, what happened on that August night six years ago in that tunnel in Paris, that car crash that killed Princess Diana and her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed, remains very much a mystery, but it has to be said, not to the French investigators who produced a 6,000-page document which will form the backbone of this British inquest. Those French investigators concluding categorically that that car crash was the result of a drunk driver speeding too fast in a very heavy car.
Now, to move on to what the British coroner will do, we already know that the who, the what and the where of these inquests. What he will try to ascertain, and to finally put that speculation to rest, is the how. He will try to prove definitively once and for all that he can say how they died.
Now, the coroner did make reference today to the speculation. saying he was aware there was a great dial of speculation about the nature of their deaths, and that he had asked the metropolitan police, that's Scotland Yard, to carry out an investigation and to report to him if there was anything further that he needed to take a look at.
Now, these inquests have been adjourned, Martin, for between 12 to 15 months, in part because there are still some French judicial proceedings which need to go ahead, and in part because the coroner must digest that 6,000-page document, and decide what's relevant and what witnesses he wanted to called.
As you've mentioned, we know that probably no matter what the coroner decides, the father of Mohammed Al Fayed has made up his mind as he said again outside the courtroom where his son's inquest was opened.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MOHAMMED FAYED, DODI FAYED'S FATHER: I already mentioned it, and I'm mentioning it all the time. It is absolute blatant. It was a horrendous murder.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACVICAR: Now, as I said, that clearly was not the finding of the French investigators. You mentioned the tabloid newspaper. Here it is. This is the newspaper which has published, again, that letter that Diana wrote to her then butler Paul Burrell 10 months before her death, in which she said that she believed that her then divorced husband, Prince Charles, was planning an accident in her car which would kill her so he could marry Camilla. Now Paul Burrell has spoken, saying it was never his intention that become public.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL BURRELL, DIANA'S FORMER BUTLER: I'm not happy about it. I only learned about it late last night, and it was always my intention never to publish that name. I never ever wanted it to be known.
QUESTION: Are you angry towards "The Daily Mirror," Mr. Burrell?
BURRELL: I'm not very happy.
QUESTION: What do you plan to do now?
BURRELL: I'm going to speak to my lawyer and my agent.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACVICAR: Now, Paul Burrell there, saying he is going to speak to his lawyer and agent.
The bells of Westminster Abbey there, the church from which Diana was buried, sounding the evening mass.
In addition to that, we know that one of the questions that they will try to put to rest, not only the nature of how they died, he said, again, today, that the reason the inquest last taken so long to be opened was because of these French judicial processes which are ongoing, processes that must be added, which have been started by Mr. Al Fayed himself -- Martin.
SAVIDGE: CNN's Sheila MacVicar joining us live from, as you can hear, London. Thank you very much.
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 - 13:01 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: Moving on, was it a mundane traffic accident or a horrendous murder? Almost 6 1/2 years after Princess Diana was killed in a Paris car crash, a formal British inquest is under way, and nothing is out of bounds. That includes the mundane crash view held by Diana's former bodyguard, among others, and the murder view, held most visibly by the father of Diana's boyfriend, who also was killed that August night in 1997. Presumably, it also includes a 1996 letter from the princess to her confidante and right hand man, in which she claims someone was plotting to kill her by tampering with the brakes in her car. A London tabloid says that person that Diana accused was Prince Charles, though there is no way to verify that independently.
CNN's Sheila MacVicar is following all the twists and turns -- Sheila.
SHEILA MACVICAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Martin, indeed, more twists and turns, and more food for the conspiracists who are out there, and out there in great number. For a great many people, what happened on that August night six years ago in that tunnel in Paris, that car crash that killed Princess Diana and her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed, remains very much a mystery, but it has to be said, not to the French investigators who produced a 6,000-page document which will form the backbone of this British inquest. Those French investigators concluding categorically that that car crash was the result of a drunk driver speeding too fast in a very heavy car.
Now, to move on to what the British coroner will do, we already know that the who, the what and the where of these inquests. What he will try to ascertain, and to finally put that speculation to rest, is the how. He will try to prove definitively once and for all that he can say how they died.
Now, the coroner did make reference today to the speculation. saying he was aware there was a great dial of speculation about the nature of their deaths, and that he had asked the metropolitan police, that's Scotland Yard, to carry out an investigation and to report to him if there was anything further that he needed to take a look at.
Now, these inquests have been adjourned, Martin, for between 12 to 15 months, in part because there are still some French judicial proceedings which need to go ahead, and in part because the coroner must digest that 6,000-page document, and decide what's relevant and what witnesses he wanted to called.
As you've mentioned, we know that probably no matter what the coroner decides, the father of Mohammed Al Fayed has made up his mind as he said again outside the courtroom where his son's inquest was opened.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MOHAMMED FAYED, DODI FAYED'S FATHER: I already mentioned it, and I'm mentioning it all the time. It is absolute blatant. It was a horrendous murder.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACVICAR: Now, as I said, that clearly was not the finding of the French investigators. You mentioned the tabloid newspaper. Here it is. This is the newspaper which has published, again, that letter that Diana wrote to her then butler Paul Burrell 10 months before her death, in which she said that she believed that her then divorced husband, Prince Charles, was planning an accident in her car which would kill her so he could marry Camilla. Now Paul Burrell has spoken, saying it was never his intention that become public.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL BURRELL, DIANA'S FORMER BUTLER: I'm not happy about it. I only learned about it late last night, and it was always my intention never to publish that name. I never ever wanted it to be known.
QUESTION: Are you angry towards "The Daily Mirror," Mr. Burrell?
BURRELL: I'm not very happy.
QUESTION: What do you plan to do now?
BURRELL: I'm going to speak to my lawyer and my agent.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACVICAR: Now, Paul Burrell there, saying he is going to speak to his lawyer and agent.
The bells of Westminster Abbey there, the church from which Diana was buried, sounding the evening mass.
In addition to that, we know that one of the questions that they will try to put to rest, not only the nature of how they died, he said, again, today, that the reason the inquest last taken so long to be opened was because of these French judicial processes which are ongoing, processes that must be added, which have been started by Mr. Al Fayed himself -- Martin.
SAVIDGE: CNN's Sheila MacVicar joining us live from, as you can hear, London. Thank you very much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
