From: bern.boergeenreclame@planet.nl   
      
   Diana: Let the people decide   
   09/01/07   
   By Padraic Flanagan   
      
   The Queen stepped into the row over the Princess Diana inquest yesterday,   
   telling the royal coroner: "Let the people decide."   
      
   The Daily Express has been a lone voice for years in crusading for such   
   openness in establishing the truth.   
      
   The Queen's lawyer told a judge it would be "undesirable and perhaps   
   invidious" for an inquest jury to be made up of officers of the Royal   
   Household - as rules governing the death of a princess dictate.   
      
   Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, the retired judge in charge of the inquest, agreed.   
   Lady Butler-Sloss said she must now decide whether to call a jury of the   
   public or sit alone, saying: "I think it's entirely inappropriate for me to   
   ask for a jury from the Royal Household."   
      
   Lady Butler-Sloss, the deputy royal coroner, announced that the full   
   inquests into the death of Diana and her lover Dodi Fayed will be held   
   together and in public at the beginning of May.   
      
   She took the decision to have the hearings together because it would be   
   "unbelievably expensive, exhausting and upsetting" to hold separate inquests   
   into the deaths.   
      
   This development is seen as a part victory for Dodi's father, Harrods boss   
   Mohamed Al Fayed, who has campaigned for a joint hearing and against a royal   
   jury.   
      
   The preliminary hearing at the High Court in London yesterday was held   
   almost three years after the inquest was officially opened and adjourned. It   
   began with a plea from Prince William and Prince Harry that the proceedings   
   should not be further dragged out.   
      
   They have endured endless speculation into the cause of their mother's death   
   in 1997.   
      
   Addressing the princes' representative in court, Lady Butler-Sloss said they   
   would be spared the ordeal of appearing in court.   
      
   "I would be very surprised if those you represent were expected to give   
   evidence," she said.   
      
   Earlier she read out a letter from Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, the princes'   
   private secretary, which said the "inquest should not only be open, fair and   
   transparent but that it should move swiftly to a conclusion".   
      
   A letter from the Princess's sister, Lady Sarah McCorquodale, who was in   
   court, was also read, saying that she shared the princes' views.   
      
   A lawyer for Trevor Rees, the only survivor of the fatal car crash in Paris,   
   backed that call.   
      
   "It's very important indeed that this matter is brought to closure as   
   quickly as possible for the sake of the victims," said Ian Lucas.   
      
   The events surrounding the crash in the Pont de l'Alma tunnel in the French   
   capital on August 31 1997 have been the subject of extensive investigations   
   on both sides of the Channel.   
      
   An 830-page report by Lord Stevens, the former Metropolitan Police   
   Commissioner, concluded that Diana, 36, and Dodi, 42, were killed in a   
   tragic accident caused by a speeding drunk chauffeur.   
      
   The report, published last month, came after a two-year investigation by the   
   French authorities which also blamed the driver, Henri Paul, who was killed   
   instantly in the crash.   
      
   But Mr Fayed maintains Diana and his son were murdered in a plot by British   
   intelligence services and has described the Lord Stevens investigation as   
   "garbage" and a "cover-up".   
      
   Lady Butler-Sloss said the role of the inquest was to establish answers to   
   just four questions: The identity of the deceased, the place of death, the   
   time of death and "how the deceased came by his death".   
      
   She said the most important point on which she had to decide during the   
   legal arguments, involving a battery of lawyers including representatives of   
   the victims, employers and the Queen, was on whether there should be a jury.   
      
   Lady Butler-Sloss said: "I think that there is one decision I can make   
   today. I think it's entirely inappropriate for me to ask for a jury from the   
   Royal Household."   
      
   She reserved a decision on whether to have a public jury or to hear the case   
   by herself. Her ruling is expected early next week.   
      
   A coroner, who can hold an inquest into bodies returned from abroad where   
   death is sudden or unexplained, is compelled to empanel a jury of between   
   seven and 11 members only where foul play is suspected.   
      
   The hearing heard how Diana was still technically regarded as a member of   
   the Royal Family when she died, despite being stripped of her HRH title   
   following her divorce from Prince Charles.   
      
   Her body lay in the chapel of St James's Palace before her funeral, meaning   
   that under current legislation - which is planned to be scrapped - any jury   
   would normally have to be made up of senior members of the Royal Household.   
   Sir John Nutting QC, representing the Queen, argued that the inquest should   
   be heard by a jury made up of the public. Lawyers for Mr Fayed made the same   
   argument.   
      
   In a written submission, Sir John said said if it was decided to have a   
   jury, the public interest would be "best served" by choosing a panel of   
   ordinary men and women to avoid any "appearance of bias".   
      
   "Indeed, in the particular circumstances of this case the public interest,   
   it is submitted, would be best served by avoiding the course of [summoning]   
   a 'royal' jury to avoid any appearance of bias in consideration of the   
   issues which such an inquest would be bound to consider," his submission   
   read.   
      
   Ian Burnett, the coroner's own QC, said if the inquest were to be heard by a   
   jury of members of the public, Lady Butler-Sloss would have to transfer the   
   case to Surrey Coroner's Court. If she were to do so, she would no longer   
   run the inquest as deputy royal coroner but as the coroner of Surrey, he   
   said.   
      
   He added that if Lady Butler-Sloss decided to sit without a jury she could   
   choose whether she wanted to transfer the inquest or not. Lady Butler-Sloss   
   said any jury would be faced with more than 40 witnesses, many of them   
   French who will give evidence via interpreters on a video link from Paris.   
      
   She added that the report by French investigators was thought to amount to   
   15 volumes of evidence.   
      
   A further preliminary hearing will be held in March to discuss which   
   witnesses to call and the scope of the inquest, she said.   
      
   There has been speculation that Prince Charles and Prince Philip may be   
   called to give evidence at the full inquest.   
      
   Richard Keen QC, acting for Henri Paul's parents, said the inquest must be   
   held with a jury to quash a perception of bias tainting the proceedings.   
      
   He argued that Lady Butler-Sloss might appear in the public mind to be   
   associated with the findings of the Lord Stevens report. Lady Butler-Sloss   
   replied: "I supported the publication of the report but that doesn't mean I   
   support the conclusions.   
      
   "I am unable to do that because I haven't heard the inquests. There is much   
   in Lord Stevens's report that is capable of challenge."   
      
   Lord Stevens is expected to provide a coroner's report by the end of the   
   month, containing further information needed to hold the inquests.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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