Judge says no evidence royals plotted to kill Diana

The coroner at an inquest into the death of Britain's Princess Diana in a car crash said on Monday there was no evidence that her former father-in-law, the Duke of Edinburgh, had "ordered Diana's execution".

Diana died in a crash in Paris in 1997 along with Dodi al-Fayed, whose father Mohamed al-Fayed has accused Queen Elizabeth's husband Prince Philip of being behind her death.

But after almost six months of listening to more than 250 witnesses, Lord Justice Scott Baker told the jury in his summing up: "There is no evidence that the Duke of Edinburgh ordered Diana's execution and there is no evidence that the security intelligence services or any other government agency organised it."

The inquest was delayed for 10 years because Britain had to wait for the French legal process and then a British police investigation to run their course before it could begin. Both police inquiries decided it was a tragic accident because chauffeur Henri Paul was drunk and driving too fast. But Mohamed al-Fayed has repeatedly alleged that Dodi and Diana were killed by British security services on the orders of Prince Philip because the royal family did not want the mother of the future king having a child with his son.

Summing up the case, Scott Baker set out the possible verdicts the jury could reach, but stressed: "It is not open to you to find that Diana and Dodi were unlawfully killed in a staged accident."

He said possible verdicts included unlawful killing through gross negligence either by Henri Paul, by the paparazzi pursuing the princess' car, or by both.

Other possibilities were accidental death, or an open verdict if the 11-member jury felt there was insufficient evidence to support any substantive verdict. Scott Baker also told the jury that certain witnesses at the inquest had not told the truth. "One of the regrettable features of this case is the number of people who have told lies in the witness box or elsewhere," he said.

The judge specifically named Diana's butler Paul Burrell, whose three days of testimony was described by lawyers as being "all over the place", as one of those witnesses.