Was Princess Diana murdered?

The verdict is no, according to an inquest held into the cause of her death over the last six months.

The big question was whether the deaths of Diana and her boyfriend Dodi Al Fayed in a fatal car crash in 1997 had been accidental, or whether there was some kind of conspiracy¹ to have them killed.

Dodi’s father Mohamed Al Fayed, owner of London’s world-famous department store Harrods, has insisted for the last decade that the pair were assassinated² by agents of the British state who did not want them to marry.

But his theories now look to have been blown out of the water. The court found that Princess Diana and her boyfriend were not murdered but unlawfully killed due to the "gross negligence³" of her driver and the paparazzi. Her driver was drunk at the time of the crash and the paparazzi had been chasing their car.

So is this the end of the Diana story?

British taxpayers⁴ may hope so. The inquest has cost them an estimated £10m (140m RMB). "Thank God it’s over", was the headline in The Guardian⁵ newspaper. UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown said it was time to "draw a line" under the death of the Princess.

But Mohamed Al Fayed has refused to accept the verdict. He says the result will come as a "blow" to millions of his supporters around the world, and has not ruled out launching another investigation⁶.

Whatever happens next, the special place Princess Diana has in the hearts of people around the world is not likely to be forgotten.