Photographers Cleared In Diana's Death

French Judge Rules Alcohol, Speed Caused Fatal Car Crash

(AP)  France's highest court on Thursday upheld the dismissal of manslaughter charges against nine photographers and a press motorcyclist in the car crash that killed Princess Diana, ending years of court battles over who was responsible for her death.

In a separate case, however, the nine photographers remain under investigation — a step short of formal charges — on charges of invasion of privacy for taking pictures of the victims in their car after the crash.

Diana, her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed, and their driver, Henri Paul, died in the Aug. 31, 1997, crash at the Alma traffic tunnel in Paris. Bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones survived, but suffered severe facial injuries.

On Thursday, the Court of Cassation dismissed an appeal by Mohamed Al Fayed in September 1999 after French Judge Herve Stephan ruled that drugs and alcohol taken by Paul, as well as excessive speed, caused the deaths. Appeals can often take several years in France.

Al Fayed, the Egyptian-born owner of Harrods department store in London, had long denounced Stephan's decision, which followed a two-year investigation, for failing to take into account the photographers' role in the crash.

He claims the photographers contributed directly to the accident by giving chase to the couple's car and thus forcing Paul to accelerate to dangerous speeds.

Al Fayed also has long claimed the deaths were a murder conspiracy plotted by people who disapproved of Diana's relationship with his son.

Last November, a French court denied Al Fayed's claim for $141,000 in damages for what he had called a flawed part of the inquiry into the case. He alleged that investigative judges erred by not immediately investigating the charge of invasion of privacy against the photographers at the scene.