Fayed: Diana and Dodi were ‘murdered’

The Harrods owner Mohamed Fayed opened his evidence at the inquest into the deaths of his son Dodi Fayed and the Princess of Wales this morning by claiming that the couple were "murdered" because Diana was pregnant with Dodi's child and was about to become engaged to his son. Fayed said that he would "make no allegations" and said he was simply declaring his beliefs about how the couple died. However he immediately told the court: "Princess Diana also told me personally before and during the holiday we shared in July 1997 of her fears. She told me that she knew Prince Philip and Prince Charles were trying to get rid of her."

Fayed also branded the Duke of Edinburgh a "Nazi" and a "racist", saying that he believed the Establishment could not accept an Egyptian Muslim as a stepfather to the future King of England.

"It's time to send [Philip] back to Germany from where he comes," he said. "You want to know his original name - it ends with Frankenstein." Prince Charles, Fayed continued, took part in the scheme in the hope that he would then be able to marry Camilla Parker Bowles. According to reports from the Royal Courts of Justice, Fayed described Camilla as a "crocodile wife" and the Windsors as "that Dracula family". (Continued below)

Fayed has consistently argued that his son Dodi and Diana were engaged to be married and that they were killed in a plot hatched by M16 under instructions from the Duke of Edinburgh.

Last Thursday, as reported on The First Post, Fayed’s case appeared to unravel when his own investigator, John Macnamara, was forced to acknowledge that he had no evidence that Diana had been engaged to Dodi, or that she was pregnant at the time of their deaths - apart from what Fayed had told him.

Macnamara, a former detective chief superintendent, also admitted that he had no evidence of a conspiracy involving either the Duke of Edinburgh, the British and French security services, or the then British ambassador to Paris to kill the couple - despite having made sworn police statements to the contrary.

Fayed took the witness stand within hours of a report appearing in the Sun newspaper claiming that Diana’s former butler, Paul Burrell, had admitted to perjuring himself when he gave evidence at the inquest last month.