The claims were given to the force in the last few days by the Royal Military Police, who were told of them by the parents-in-law of a former soldier, sources said. The dossier is said to include a reference to the SAS and to the Princess’s “secret diary”, according to one report.
Scotland Yard declined to confirm the content or origin of the material.
Officers from the specialist crime and operations command will carry out the “scoping” exercise to assess if a full-scale investigation is justified into whether the Princess, her boyfriend Dodi Fayed and driver Henri Paul were murdered.
Saturday night’s disclosure comes in spite of the inquest into the death of the Princess and Fayed dismissing any claims of murder made by Mohammed Fayed, Dodi’s father, and conspiracy theorists.
Scotland Yard emphasised that it was not reopening the previous investigation into the deaths, Operation Paget, and highlighted the verdict of the inquest held after that inquiry was completed.
The decision to examine the evidence will have been taken at senior levels. Officers will have to assess whether the information has not been investigated previously and can potentially shed new light on the deaths. If they conclude that it does, it would open the prospect of a full inquiry, a decision which would be made by Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe in consultation with other figures.
Practically, if the Police consider there is a case to investigate into murder, they will not be bound by the previous investigations and inquest.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the current assessment that the Police are making is already connected to the court martial of two persons convicted for illegal possession of weapons and ammunition.
One of these persons had been charged, but then a "sympathy case" was launched as if he was "above the Law". But then .... the decision was reviewed, he was tried by court martial and convicted!
Clearly there is no appetite in the British Judicial system to give anyone special "above-the-law" status.
At least not now anyway!