Delay over Diana inquest: Royal Coroner explains

[emad]

From the UK's BC News:

The Royal Coroner says he is not yet able to fix a date for an inquest into the death Diana, Princess of Wales. Michael Burgess, who is also the Surrey coroner, announced in August he would conduct an inquest into the princess' death and the death of her companion Dodi Al Fayed. The French inquiry in 1999 blamed French chauffeur Henri Paul, who also died, concluding he had taken a cocktail of drink and drugs and had been driving too fast. According to British law, an inquest must happen when a body is returned to Britain following a death abroad.

"The inquest into the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, has not yet been held because the various investigations being made on my behalf have not so far been concluded," Mr Burgess said on Wednesday. He said that he wanted to "take into account of the findings of the investigations and proceedings in France" but understood that "some of these matters are still before the French courts."

It was his responsibility to decide on the scope of the investigations, the witnesses to be called, when to hold the inquest and "the practical arrangements for the public hearing. I am not yet in a position to make final decisions on any of these matters, but aim to do so as soon as I can."

Meanwhile, Buckingham Palace's lawyers are examining Mr Burrell's book containing details of alleged letters between the Prince of Edinburgh and Diana. Buckingham Palace requested a copy of Paul Burrell's book. It is understood that officials at Buckingham Palace have spoken with their legal advisers to see if the law of copyright has been breached. The palace would view the correspondence as private as they were not bequeathed to Mr Burrell. The copyright of letters remains with the person who wrote the correspondence or, in the late Princess's case, with her estate, primarily her sons Prince William and Prince Harry.

<snip>
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3203909.stm

The rules for a Royal inquest state that all senior members of the Royal Family MUST attend the coroner's court, as was made plain after the untimely death of the later Duke of Gloucester in 1972, following an airplane crash.

[teryang]

1. What a fiasco!

Is there blood on your hands, your majesty?

[izzie]

2. I can not believe they are doing this on this crazy womens word.

She was a nut case. Maybe fun and great to read about but she did not have a thought in her head but for her self.

[GCP]

4. Well, it seems she forecast her own death

Maybe she wasn't that crazy. :wtf:

[teryang]

6. She campaigned for the Convention on Mine Warfare

...internationally which offended the Crown and the British defense establishment. Also covorting around with non whites and threatening to move the Royal grandchildren to the mainland was a threat to the Royal family as an institution. She was hardly thoughtless. She took up with Doti because she thought his family was rich and powerful enough to oppose the Queen, as they had done successfully on prior occasions. She was mistaken and strong willed but she knew exactly what she was doing.

No one is taking her word. The inquest is required by law.

[emad]

7. John Major once gave an interview saying that Princess Di

had been looking for a new charity to promote and he had suggested landmines because there was no high profile patron in this slot.

Dodi was one of her many lovers. If you go back over the years and check the miles of newscoverage, you'll see that she was reported to having had approximately 13 lovers, the longest lasting being the Pakistani doctor Hasnat Khan. There was the England rugby captial Will Carling - whose marriage crumbled after his wife Julia found out; an antique dealer in west London, some old school chum who called her Squidgy, the idiot army captain James Hewitt, etc etc ad nauseam...

I think the only person benefitting from the mythology that Dodi was her knight in shining armour was Mohammed Fayed, whose shop Harrods had been flagging until then. She did more for the balance sheet of that shop than any other 'fund raising' she was ever associated with!

[Media_Lies_Daily]

8. "Crazy woman"?? Interesting response...

...but after reading your comments about the rising cost of tuition, I'm not surprised.

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. I ask you again: where are these 'rules'

about 'all senior members' having to attend? Who do you mean by 'all senior members'?

A small point: it was the Duke of Gloucester's son who died in 1972, not the then Duke.

[emad]

5. The "rules" were read out by the then coroner to all those

attending the 1972 inquest. References were made to past precedent whereby official guidelines were verbally defined as stipulations laid down by previous monarchs that were to apply in all future royal inquests.

The minutes of that inquest are still available in the archives at Winsdor Castle and can be examined by members of the public who put in a written request to the Royal Archivist, and supply a checkable reference to authenticate their enquiry. A verbatim transcipt goes into some detail to define these "rules".

Some reference is made to this inquest in archive material held at the Public Records Office in Kew. The enquiry status is as rigorous as at Windsor, whereby you can view the material if you have a legitimate sponsor to back up a written request to examine the records.

The present Duke of Gloucester also has a copy in his family archives.

"Senior Royals": the same as those who attended the 1972 inquest, with the exception of those who are now dead. The full list is also in the Windsor Castle archives.

Princess Alice is exempt, due to age and infirmity.