Royals Order Assassination of Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed

Princess Diana died after a car crash in a Paris tunnel in August 1997. Her partner at the time, Dodi Al-Fayed, and the driver, Henri Paul, were also killed in the crash. The sole survivor was her bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones. It did not take long for conspiracy theories to emerge, suggesting that, perhaps, the accident was actually an assassination ordered by the British royal family with the knowledge of the British government and carried out by the security services.

The most publicly vociferous supporter of the theory is businessman Mohamed Al-Fayed. He believes that his son was about to get engaged to Princess Diana and that she was pregnant at the time of the crash. Diana’s friends and family deny any knowledge of such plans and the coroner claimed she was not pregnant at the time of her death.

Al-Fayed believes that Prince Philip ordered the assassination for a number of reasons, chiefly that Diana was making fools of the royal family, that she was undermining their position, and that it would have been a great embarrassment for them if she had married Dodi Al-Fayed or, worse, had a child with him.

The official inquiry into the accident found that it was caused by the chauffeur, Henri Paul, who was drunk and speeding in order to avoid the paparazzi. Much of the suspicion surrounds Henri Paul because he was not Dodi’s usual driver and, in fact, stepped in at the last minute to drive the couple. Henri Paul was head of security at the Ritz Hotel and had worked for MI6 for a number of years, supplying information to them for a fee. Then, there is the fact that the army-trained bodyguard, Rees-Jones, survived the crash with theorists suggesting that he may have been in on the plot.

Since her death, it has come to light that Princess Diana feared she would be killed in a car crash and that she suspected Prince Charles of plotting against her, something she revealed in a 1995 letter. Then, there was the report from a fire fighter on the scene that she spoke to her rescuers despite official claims she was too injured to talk. There was also an eyewitness account, which revealed that a white Fiat may have forced the car to crash. As if all that was not enough, it seems that there was a mix-up over a blood sample from the car, which contained high levels of carbon monoxide. It was so high, in fact, that if it was chauffeur Henri Paul’s blood, then he would have been unable to walk much less drive.

The theory about MI6 being responsible centres on Jean Paul Andanson, a covert agent who was found shot in the head in the burned wreckage of an abandoned car. Theorists suggest that it was Andanson who was driving the mysterious white Fiat in the tunnel that night and that he caused the crash.

While there is little doubt that Prince Philip is a hateful racist, there is considerable doubt about whether he had the power to order an assassination.