Court disallows paparazzi statements in Diana inquest: Ruling

LONDON: London's Court of Appeal ruled Monday that written statements by French paparazzi photographers could not be admitted as evidence in the inquest into the 1997 deaths of princess Diana and her lover.   

Coroner Lord Justice Scott Baker said in a statement that he was "disappointed" with the court's decision, adding that it would likely increase the costs of the inquest and lengthen its duration.   

In a legal tussle, Baker had originally said that he would seek to admit the photographers' statements as written evidence since they declined to give evidence in person and submit to cross-examination.   

But Richard Keen, lawyer for Henri Paul, the princess's driver on the night of her death, argued against the coroner's decision by saying that allowing the statements to be admitted as evidence would allow them to go unchallenged.   

Three High Court judges last week ruled that he was correct, as Baker's decision broke rules which only allowed written evidence which was "unlikely to be disputed".   

Baker filed an appeal and on Monday the Court of Appeal rejected it -- saying that it would give its reasons later.   

The coroner does not have the power to compel foreign witnesses to give evidence to an inquest, and the French government has declined to compel the photographers to do so.   

Separately, Baker also said that Romuald Rat, the first photographer at the scene of the car crash which killed Diana and her lover Dodi Fayed, may give evidence by video link from Paris on Tuesday.   

In a statement, Rat dismissed allegations that he telephoned Britain's The Sun tabloid newspaper in the immediate aftermath of the crash demanding 300,000 pounds (418,000 euros, 620,000 dollars) for exclusive pictures.   

Diana, Fayed and Paul were all killed in the crash in a Paris underpass after they left the Ritz hotel in the early hours of August 31, 1997.   

Separate French and British investigations both concluded that the crash was caused by Paul being over the legal alcohol limit and driving too fast.   

Mohamed al-Fayed, the millionaire owner of Harrods department store, maintains they were killed in a British establishment plot as they did not want to see the mother to the heir to the throne marry a Muslim.