Diana, Dodi were murdered: Mohammad al Fayed

Mohamed al Fayed, the father of Diana's lover Dodi, on Monday dubbed the Royal family as 'Dracula family' and told the High Court that the princess and his son were not killed in a tragic accident but were murdered.

"Princess Diana told me that she knew Prince Philip and Prince Charles were trying to get rid of her," al Fayed told the court.

According to him, Diana had told him personally that she was pregnant before she and his son Dodi died.

"Diana told me on the telephone that she was pregnant. I am the only person they told. They told me they were engaged and would announce their engagement on Monday morning. She would speak to her sons when she returned from Paris," said the chief of London's Harrods departmental store.

He also launched an astonishing attack on the Duke of Edinburgh, calling him a Nazi and a racist.

Al Fayed, 75, told the court: "Princess Diana also told me personally before and during the holiday we shared in July 1997 of her fears."

Of Philip, he said: "It's time to send him back to Germany from where he comes. You want to know his original name - it ends with Frankenstein."

The tycoon said Diana had told him she had kept a wooden box and if anything was to happen to her he must make sure the contents of the box were made public.

Al Fayed said he spoke to Burrell, Diana's butler, immediately after the crash and was assured by him that the box would be kept safe.

"I told him, if anybody tried to tamper with the contents, to tell me," he said. "He did not keep his promise, the next I heard he had been arrested."

Al Fayed told the court that Diana's sister, Lady Sarah McCorquodale, had come to him two days after the crash.

"She told me that she thought the crash was suspicious, that she would find the box and keep its contents safe. She has not done so. I am certain, also, that she was part of the cover-up," he said.

Al Fayed said he had been asked to provide proof of all of his claims, but told the jury: "You want me to get the proof but I am facing a steel wall from the security services. I have been fighting for ten years to be where we are."
He said blood samples apparently taken from driver Henri Paul, after his death, were not actually his. "It has been proved in black and white that the blood being taken was not Henri Paul's blood.

Al Fayed said he believed the murder was likely to have been carried out by photographer James Andanson, who has since died, on the orders of the security services.

"There was one paparazzi member in the pay of the security services, this is likely to have been James Andanson, who exacted the murder in his own Fiat, pushed the car and a strobe light, which was used to blind Henri Paul."

He insisted that the Paris car crash that killed Dodi, Diana and their driver, Henri Paul, on August 31, 1997 was the work of Mi6, the British external intelligence agency, at the behest of Prince Philip.

The tycoon said the 'Establishment' could not accept an Egyptian Muslim as a stepfather to the future King of England.

The inquest has already heard there is no medical evidence that Princess Diana was pregnant.