{"id":1161,"date":"2007-09-02T18:12:55","date_gmt":"2007-09-02T18:12:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/al-fayed-inquest-plea-to-diana-bodyguard\/1161\/"},"modified":"2007-09-02T18:12:55","modified_gmt":"2007-09-02T18:12:55","slug":"al-fayed-inquest-plea-to-diana-bodyguard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/latest-news\/al-fayed-inquest-plea-to-diana-bodyguard\/","title":{"rendered":"Al Fayed inquest plea to Diana bodyguard"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Marc Baker<\/a><\/p>\n

HARRODS boss Mohamed Al Fayed has urged Princess Diana\u2019s former bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones to give evidence at her inquest.<\/p>\n

Mr Rees-Jones, 49, marked the 10th anniversary of the Princess\u2019 death by refusing to say whether he would speak at her inquest in October.<\/p>\n

After Princes William and Harry led a memorial to their late mother\u2019s memory, Mr Al Fayed said it was time for people with vital evidence to come forward. A spokesman for Mr Al Fayed was commenting on the decision of Mr Rees-Jones to refuse to reveal whether he would attend the Princess\u2019s inquest or not.<\/p>\n

Asked if he would give evidence, a spokeswoman for the former paratrooper said: \u201cWe are not commenting further.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrevor Rees-Jones wishes to state that he will not be conducting any media interviews or making any further statements relating to or arising out of the events of August 31, 1997.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe asks for his privacy, and particularly that of his family at this time, and in the future, to be respected.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Mr Al Fayed\u2019s spokesman Michael Cole insisted people with evidence should come forward.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cIt is a matter for the coroner but anybody who has relevant information should be willing and ready to come forward to help the process of the inquest.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone with relevant information should be willing to give evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the only survivor of the crash, Mr Rees-Jones\u2019 evidence is vital in unravelling the mystery which surrounds the deaths of Diana, 36, and Dodi, 42, on August 31, 1997.<\/p>\n

When they left Mr Al Fayed\u2019s Paris Ritz Hotel, the guard sat in the front seat of the Mercedes.<\/p>\n

Mr Rees-Jones, who at the time was living in Oswestry, broke every bone in his face and suffered terrible chest and head injuries in the incident. He was unable to give a coherent account of what he remembered for months afterwards.<\/p>\n

Initially, Mr Rees-Jones swore driver Henri Paul had not been drinking before transporting Diana and Dodi Fayed from the Paris Ritz Hotel.<\/p>\n

But just two years later in his book, The Bodyguard\u2019s Story, he blamed the accident, which left the couple and Henri Paul dead, on a lethal combination of alcohol and speeding. Mr Al Fayed\u2019s plea for Mr Rees-Jones to give evidence is based on his desire to understand why the bodyguard changed his testimony over the tragedy. It also follows accusations, never proven, that Mr Rees-Jones may have been \u201cgot at\u201d after initially giving a version of events which may have backed up claims that the crash was orchestrated in an Establishment plot.<\/p>\n

Mohamed Al Fayed maintains the couple were murdered as part of a conspiracy orchestrated by the Royal Family and their aides. The accusation has always been denied.<\/p>\n

Recently, Mr Rees-Jones has been working as a private security advisor in Iraq.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Marc Baker HARRODS boss Mohamed Al Fayed has urged Princess Diana\u2019s former bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones to give evidence at her inquest. Mr Rees-Jones, 49, marked the 10th anniversary of the Princess\u2019 death by refusing to say whether he would speak at her inquest in October. After Princes William and Harry led a memorial to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,1615],"tags":[55],"class_list":{"0":"post-1161","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-latest-news","7":"category-uk-news","8":"tag-uk-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1161\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}