France closes Diana investigation

Princess Diana was killed in a Paris car crash in 1997

PARIS, France -- France's highest court has put a final end to the investigation into the death of Princess Diana.

The princess died in a car crash in Paris five years ago. The Court of Cassation on Thursday upheld the dismissal by the investigator of manslaughter charges against nine photographers and a press motorcyclist who were in pursuit of the Mercedes as it entered the Alma tunnel in Paris where it crashed.

The decision will be a blow to London's Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed whose son Dodi Fayed also died in the crash, along with the driver Henri Paul. Bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones survived, but suffered severe facial injuries.

But in a separate case 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.

EXTRA INFORMATION People in the News: The life of Princess Diana    RESOURCES Image gallery: Princess Diana

The Court of Cassation dismissed an appeal lodged by Al Fayed in September 1999 after French Judge Herve Stephan ruled that alcohol, drugs and excessive speed caused the crash. Appeals can often take several years in France.

Al Fayed has 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 as a result forcing Paul to accelerate to dangerous speeds.

Al Fayed has also 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.

The pictures were impounded by police soon after the crash and have never been published.