Man who comforted dying Diana jailed for theft

A man who held the hand of Britain’s Princess Diana as she lay dying in a Paris car crash has been jailed after months on the run for robbing cash machines and handling stolen paintings, police said.

Abdelatif Redjil, 54, opened the door of Diana’s wrecked Mercedes, held her hand and tried to comfort her, he testified in 2007 at London’s High Court during an inquiry into Diana’s death.

A police source in Meaux, near Paris, told AFP on Sunday that Mr Redjil, known as “The Locksmith” for his skills at breaking and entering, was arrested last Wednesday for stealing $41,000 from a cash machine.

He had been on the run since fleeing from custody after being sentenced to three years’ jail in September for fencing three Picasso paintings worth €50 million stolen in a high-profile heist in Paris in 2007, reports said.

Police caught him red-handed breaking into a cash machine in a Paris suburb and he fled before being arrested several days later, media reported.

French radio station RTL and other media identified Mr Redjil as the same man who had testified in the inquiries surrounding the death of Diana in August 1997.