MI6 did not keep files on Princess Diana, the inquest into her death heard yesterday (26.02.08).
Popular on LondonNet
A female MI6 manager, named only as Miss X, told London’s High Court that searches she made of an electronic database found no information on the princess or her lover Dodi Fayed.
Following Diana and Dodi’s death in a Paris car crash on August 31st 1997, Dodi’s father Mohamed Al Fayed has always insisted the MI6 were behind a plot to murder them.
But Miss X insisted the agency hadn’t been keeping tabs on them as some people have claimed. Ian Burnett QC, counsel for the coroner, questioned Miss X about Diana and Dodi, asking: “No cards for either and no files for either?”
She replied: “Absolutely correct.”
Burnett then asked: “If for the sake of argument there had been any plan at all involving Diana, Princess of Wales and Dodi Fayed would that have been drawn up by your searches?”
She replied: “Yes, there was absolutely no plan whatsoever.”
Mohamed Al Fayed has also claimed the Duke of Edinburgh was behind the plot to kill the couple. Miss X said she searched the files as part of former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Lord Stevens’ investigation into the deaths, named Operation Paget.
Asked about any references to the duke, she told the inquest: “I would just like to say at this stage, sir, we don’t hold one, either files or cards on the royal family. I could do a search on all of them.”
Miss X said she had found a card on Mohamed Al Fayed which had been created in the 1980s, but there were no entries for 1997. Michael Mansfield QC, representing Al Fayed, asked whether there was MI6 guidance on when force or threat of force would be acceptable.
She replied: “We do not go around killing people. It is simply not done.”
