HRH: The Prisoner Of Wales

(Date Posted:31/08/2006 04:38:16)

Diana always felt personally confined within royal walls. Her home of Apartments 8 & 9 in "Kensington Palace "
representing for her, albeit a gilded cage of splendour to those outside, a prison which is why she welcomed release
from it whenever she could. This explains how welcoming her personal work was for her both during her marriage, the
"Official Royal Tours" abroad although tiring and gruelling at times for her and incurring her to miss her children, and
latterly her solo tours after her divorce. A means of escape! An early example of this being that having newly moved
there from Buckingham Palace where she and Charles had initially shared his apartment whilst their home of
twenty-eight rooms of apartments 8 and 9 in Kensington Palace were decorated and prepared for them, Diana went
for a walk, wanting to see the shops in nearby Kensington High street and walked past the palace security barrier.
Only getting 200 yards beyond it when looking behind her she saw two security officers following her, she quickened
her pace, they did too and caught up with her as she was about to enter a shop, told her that they must escort her
back to the palace away from the busy high street for her own security. Escorted back sandwiched between them, it
felt as if she'd been arrested and her crime, trying to recapture a sense of the normality and freedom that had been
hers in life as "Lady Diana Spencer".

Diana and her husband argued constantly about this as he forbid her to shopping sprees un-escorted by security,
even when with a girlfriend, explaining to her that higher security personnel were responsible for this ruling and not
him and he had no personal authority over their decision about this It was something Diana couldn't understand at
that time, that the " Prince of Wales " was himself powerless to interfere but as she would later learn, even the
"Queen" is controlled by others in much of what she herself says and does, herself a prisoner of the system and one
respected by her as tradition dictates it being something royals themselves accept without question. Diana was aware
on the one hand of these security restrictions being implemented to avoid her being kidnapped and worse
assassinated but at the same time as the victim of them, riled by their necessity for her. The perks of wearing the
glamorous gowns, being materially comfortable and being waited on hand and foot were hardly compensation for the
new "H.R.H. Princess Diana of Wales" who by nature was a free - spirited character. Diana, like other outsiders
brought into the Firm, as the royals refer to themselves, finding the levels of confinement and restrictions imposed
upon her a personal trial that has resulted in the family being strewn with broken marriages and unhappy
associations. Those new to the Firm more often than not criticised, not praised or encouraged.

An example of the Queen's lack of personal power being that she who is actually personally against divorce, brought
up in an environment where it was considered unthinkable and frowned upon, leading by example to the exile to
France of the Queen's own uncle abdicating his throne for his love of a divorced woman. Despite this in 1969 she
signed her own governments Divorce Reform Act making divorce easier to obtain and with no choice in this as the
British Constitution gives Parliament the right to pass any laws it chooses and she has no power to refuse them. "The
Princess Margaret", her sister, her daughter"Anne, the Princess Royal", "Prince Andrew" her son and of course
"Princess Diana" and the Queen's eldest son "Charles"and heir to the throne, all being divorced! The royal marriage
between her and Prince Philip not being all it could be, he entertaining a relationship with famous actress Merle
Oberon. His other mistress for many years being the Queen's cousin,"Princess Alexandra", someone he, like his
eldest son with Camilla, refused to give up and something the Queen had learnt to accept having no choice from it's
beginnings in the 1950's until it's ending in the 1970's! A reason perhaps why she was not able to understand Diana's
inability to accept Charles' relationship with Camilla discreetly.

Now it can be seen as it has been pointed out else where on the site that the establishment rules and the Monarchy is
a traditional figurehead and to a greater degree a tourist attraction and a lucrative one, popular in it's pomp and
ceremony as seen by example at the annually held event of " Trooping the Colour " all over the world. Diana grew
shrewd and knew that as mother of a future King and back -up she had power and one she could use to show how
victimised she felt she was by the royal family and played to the people, the ordinary members of the public to gain
their love and support, something easy for her to do as even officially royal, Diana had been a teacher's helper and
nanny and was seen as someone people could relate to as having experienced life on the other side of the royal
walls. She was natural, warm, compassionate and caring in a hands-on approach alien to the other family members,
something the lady capitalised upon both in the United Kingdom and abroad. This leading to more invitations to her to
attend functions with her husband and without him and the escape from the palace confines that these brought her.
Diana was a people person and always prided herself on this fact and knew that her ease and popularity with the
public was a cause of great resentment and jealousy towards her from other members of the family but having felt so
betrayed by them something that Diana herself encouraged and divorced was free to do so at every opportunity and
which she took advantage of whenever and wherever in the U.K. and on foreign shores.

Diana herself in speaking out publicly on the " Panorama Interview " had invited the freedom she sought which came
in the divorce that followed it, though formal divorce being personally sad for her coming from a broken home herself
and not wanting her sons to experience it. Diana making statements during the interview that made people warm to
her, those in the establishment who saw it as an act of damaging proportions to themselves and the Monarchy, which
it was, the princess having no reason to show them loyalty in the same way their loyalty to her had proved to be
non-exsistant. The people though saw what Diana intended the audience of the programme to see, an emotionally
distressed woman, trapped in a love-less and false marriage and desperate to escape from it and someone who was
determined to not disappear as she told she was aware certain people wished she would do but was preparing herself
for stepping forward in a new and positive direction in her life, telling of her wish to become an ambassador for the
United Kingdom. A wish that fell ultimately on deaf ears, being a decision that would have needed the establishment's
consent and was refused by them. Diana would have made a brilliant ambassador for the country being so popular
and with wisdom gained from her experiences in life, able to use them in such genuine, unprejudiced and
non-judgemental ways worldwide. However, it would have increased her power and that was a problem enough
without further encouragement of it given by anyone.

As for the interview itself, Diana had it recorded and filmed secretly at Kensington Palace neither informing the Queen
about it and only her private secretary a week before its broadcast so too late for intervention by him. Diana refusing
to give details of what she'd spoken about and once televised to the nation it changed all her relationships and
associations with those in the royal family and certain advisers including "Sir Robert Fellowes", the Queen's private
secretary and married to Jane, Diana's eldest sister and other palace courtiers who were seen publicly for their
incompetence in not realising what was going on, embarrassing them and reason for Diana's own private secretary
and press secretary to resign their positions with her. The programme had highlighted the problems around the
Monarchy and increased even more Diana's personal popularity with the all important public, the opinion of whom
counted so much for her.

Diana seen as the victim of an adulterous husband who had showed her little emotional consideration and feeling and
trapped her in a marriage as a show of duty and protocol to maintain the image of the Monarchy and sustain its
survival. Diana's courage in standing up to him and to the establishment and royal house being something she was
admired for having done, speaking out honestly about how things really were behind the scenes, for allowing the
public in behind closed doors! A success publicly, privately it cost Diana's friendship with Princess Margaret, the staff
resignations mentioned and outraged her sons. William rumoured to have stopped talking to her for a number of
days. This being  near Christmas time it also provoked the Queen to write to her demanding that she and Charles
divorce followed by one from Charles agreeing this was their only option.

The most damage done by her insinuating that Charles was not suitable to be King ..... " It's a very demanding role
being Prince of Wales but it's an equally more demanding role being King and because I know the character, I would
think that the "Top -Job" as I call it would bring enormous limitations to him and I don't know whether he could adapt to
that ! My wish is that my husband finds peace of mind." .....................----Remember Diana, unlike the people at the
time, knew that her husband had a mistress and that he'd no intentions of giving her up to be King and though
separated still being married to Diana, and she being the more popular of the couple anyway and with no idea that
her death would make the way clear for him to marry Camilla,  Diana was anticipating the major problems it would
seem to have presented. Charles, having already told Diana he'd not be the first Prince of Wales without a mistress,
this making her comment about limitations a logical one!   

Diana, particularly during the last years of her life and without her royal title (an act that again in having been taken
from her had angered the people against the royals) embarrassed and humiliated them at every opportunity, gaining
more and more popularity, love and friendship as the unofficial royal in the kingdom and abroad. She did so with ease
and determination, hurting their pride and dignity and losing them respect. As an example the "Prince of Wales" in
1997 went on a high-profile tour of Germany for four days and covering the event from the U.K. being one reporter
and one photographer, Diana five days later flying to Asia with 400 people from the media for the events coverage.
The people power that Diana had being something always underestimated by the "Queen" who had been genuinely
shocked at the global reaction to Diana's death but remaining as other members of the firm all trapped in their gilded
cages knowing nothing else.  This something Diana in life made her escape from, her sentence as "H.R.H. Prisoner of
Wales."

An example of Diana's life in the U.K. ( An impromptu brief chat with Diana)Television presenter Jeremy Paxman writes
of his meeting with Diana.  
Jeremy Paxman details the outfit Diana wore at their luncheon - "a pale-blue two-piece suit and was much taller than I
had expected".
They then talked:
Diana: Jeremy, so nice of you to come.
Jeremy observes that her voice is "as smooth as cream".
Diana: Just the two of us. Can you cope?
Paxman: I'll try. ( " A thousand male fantasies flashed through my mind" ... )
And so to the conversation:
Diana says that an American airliner that had crashed off the cost of Long Island had "definitely been hit by a missile -
that's what my source says."
Paxman says "Kensington Palace", the venue for the chat, is like a prison.
Diana: "No, more like an upmarket Coronation Street. As we go out, you'll see all the curtains twitching."
But sometimes Diana nips out in disguise ("jeans and baseball cap").
The newspaper vendor will say: "What you been up to now, Di?"
Diana: "But they're terrifically friendly, and if someone starts bothering me I just go into W.H, Smith's, and the staff
there are very nice, and they hide me."
Paxman observes: "It didn't sound much of a life, but she seemed reconciled to it. A year later she was dead.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The Repossi Engagement Ring

(Date Posted:04/09/2006 13:42:23)

On the morning of Saturday, Aug. 30th 1997, Dodi and Diana sat on the top deck of the Jonikal and admired the
sparkling waters of Sardinia's Emerald Coast. Relaxed, tanned and blissfully happy, so Diana had told her friend
Rosa Monckton, they chatted and basked in the sun, enjoying the last moments of their magical Mediterranean
cruise. Butler Rene Delorm arrived on deck at 9:30 with their breakfast: coffee, croissants and jam; a basket of
bananas, apples, grapes, oranges and kiwis. Diana, as usual, took a large glass of fresh orange juice and poured hot
milk in her coffee. Dodi skipped the juice and drank his coffee black.

"It was a quiet morning. They were in a good mood," Delorm recalls. "They never stopped talking the whole cruise. It
was amazing; they never ran out of things to talk about. They were always laughing, holding hands."

Diana had expressed concern to Trevor Rees-Jones at the foolhardiness of the motorcycle riders...that the erratic
manner in which they were driving might result in one of them falling under the wheels either of the lead car or the
backup," said the al - Fayed family security chief  Paul Handley-Greaves. While the couple was lingering over their
breakfast, Dodi's cell phone rang.

It was Ritz Hotel president Frank Klein currently in Antibes returning Fayed's call from the previous night. Dodi had an
urgent need to talk to Klein, who in addition to running the Ritz was also responsible for overseeing the Windsor Villa,
the house in Paris where the Duke and Duchess of Windsor had lived for decades and which Dodi Fayed's father had
leased from city officials since 1986. Mohamed al - Fayed had ordered the Duke and Duchess's effects cleared out
and auctioned off for charity in order to turn the property over to his family's personal use. Dodi had a plan for the
stately mansion.

"Frank," he said. "Where do we stand on the Windsor Villa?"

Klein informed him that the Windsor artifacts had been removed as of the end of July and were to go on auction at
Sotheby's in less than two weeks. The house stood empty.

"Good," said Dodi. "I've spoken to my father about moving in. My friend"- he didn't want to mention Diana's name for
fear of electronic eavesdroppers "doesn't want to stay in England!"

Klein quickly guessed whom he was talking about.

Then Dodi said, "We want to move into the villa, Frank, because we are getting married in October or November."

"That's wonderful, Dodi!" said Klein. "Really wonderful. I'll be back in Paris on Monday and we'll talk about it."

Back in Paris that same afternoon, Dodi ran an important errand. Eight days earlier, he and Diana had picked out an
engagement ring at the Monaco boutique of jeweler Alberto Repossi.

Customized for Diana, the $200,000 ring was a band of yellow and white gold, with triangles of diamond clusters
surrounding a stunning emerald. Repossi had agreed to resize it and send it to his shop in Paris, just across the
Place Vendome from the Ritz. A little before 6:30 p.m later that same day and Diana and Dodi having arrived in the
French capital city themselves that same afternoon; Dodi sent Claude Roulet, second in command at the Ritz, and
bodyguard Alexander ("Kes") Wingfield on foot to Repossi's boutique. True to his security fetish, Dodi insisted on
being driven to Repossi's in the Mercedes 600, though it was less than a hundred yards from the Ritz. Trevor
Rees-Jones accompanied him and waited in the car while Dodi went inside.

"Eight days earlier, at the Monaco boutique of Alberto Repossi, Dodi and Diana bought a $200,000 custom-designed
engagement ring of yellow and white gold, with triangles of diamond clusters around a stunning emerald."

Dodi took delivery of the ring, which was from a line called "Tell Me Yes" ( "Dis - Moi - Oui" )but also examined another
one that had caught his fancy. He asked Repossi if he could take both rings to see which one the Princess preferred.
The jewels were handed over to Roulet, with details about price and payment left to be worked out later between the
shop and the Ritz management. By the time Dodi got back to the hotel's $10,000-a-night Imperial Suite, Diana had
returned from getting her hair done in the hotel salon. Shortly afterward, Roulet knocked on the door and delivered
the rings to Dodi, who took them and disappeared into the next room of the suite. Dodi later returned the second ring
to Roulet. It was thus the "Tell Me Yes" ring that Dodi Fayed had selected and probably intended to slip on Diana's
finger later that night. Whatever Dodi may have planned, he never had time to carry it out. The ring was later found in
his apartment, still in its unopened box. (It now lies in a safety-deposit box in a Swiss bank, along with several love
letters from Diana to Dodi.)

The couple had planned to eat dinner that night at Chez Benoit, a trendy restaurant near the Pompidou Center. They
stopped first at Dodi's apartment near the Arc de Triomphe but the crowds of paparazzi were so great that they
changed their mind and decided on advice from Dodi's security to return to the Ritz Hotel for dinner. Back at the hotel,
the throngs of photographers and tourists were so large that the couple could not open the car door at first. Diana
got out first, and Wingfield remembers how the "cameras were right next to her face ...Once inside, she sat on a chair
and looked...as if she were about to cry.

"Dodi he remembers was livid..It was now almost 10 p.m. A night security officer named Francois Tendil called Henri -
Paul, acting head of security, to tell him about the chaotic scene. Henri-Paul, who had met the couple at the airport
and transported their baggage to Dodi's apartment earlier in the day and had gone off duty at 7:05 p.m., rushed
back. What he had been doing during his few hours off is still unclear, as is how much alcohol he might have
consumed.  Dodi arranged for his regular car and driver plus a backup vehicle to leave from the front and act as
decoys. He, Diana and Trevor Rees-Jones would leave from the rear with Henri -  Paul at the wheel of the Mercedes.
What is clear is that when Henri-Paul got back to the hotel, he wound up in the Vendome bar, where he managed to
drink right under the noses of Dodi's two English bodyguards. Wingfield told police Henri - Paul drank "pineapple
juice, which he cut with water from a carafe, because he found it too strong. Trevor Rees-Jones later told police Henri
- Paul had consumed a "yellow liquid." but that "yellow liquid" turned out to be pastis, an anisette-based aperitif about
as strong as whiskey.

At about 11:15pm Dodi stuck his head out of the door of the Imperial Suite and told Wingfield that he had a plan to
elude the paparazzi. His regular car and driver plus a backup vehicle would leave from the front of the hotel and act
as decoys. Meanwhile, Diana, Dodi and Trevor Rees-Jones would drive off secretly from a rear exit with Henri - Paul
at the wheel of a Mercedes S-280. Dodi had used a similar scheme during his July 25-27 Paris weekend with Diana,
with one big difference: on that occasion his regular chauffeur was driving. After dinner, Dodi called his father and
told him that he and the Princess would soon leave the Ritz for his apartment. Mohamed al Fayed didn't like his plan
at all.

"Don't go," he warned. "There's a lot of press out there, a lot of people. Why don't you just stay in the hotel?"

"We can't, Moo-Moo," said Dodi, using his nickname for his father. "We have all our things back at the apartment, and
we have to leave from there in the morning."

"Just be careful," said his father. "Don't step on it. There's no hurry. Wait until you see the atmosphere is perfect, get
in your car, and go away. Don't hide; it is unnecessary. You have security with you. If they want to shoot you, fine,
then at least we know they shot you. But to go out the back, change the driver..."

Dodi had already made up his mind.  As bodyguard Kes Wingfield described the minutes before the departure from
the hotel at August 30th 1997 night: "Dodi was happy, so was the Princess. They joked and laughed. It might seem
ironic, but I had never seen the couple as happy as at the moment that they were about to leave calmly from the rear
of the hotel."

During these final moments, Dodi seemed to get more and more excited about his plan.

The Princess & the Press

In July 1997, just days before her death;  Diana, Princess of Wales said that she'd love to leave England because of
the hounding media coverage. Diana having told French newspaper " Le Monde" that "the press is ferocious," that "it
forgives nothing and is only hunting down mistakes."The princess had sharply criticized the British media in an
interview published a few days ago in the French daily saying they only look for the negative. "Each act is twisted;
each gesture is criticized," she said. "I think it's different overseas. I'm welcomed with kindness.... I think, in my place,
any sane person would have left a long time ago but I can't. I have my sons."

Since her breakup with Prince Charles, Diana had become increasingly intolerant of paparazzi following her. Diana
got a court order against one the previous year. On the eve of going to Bosnia to campaign against land mines this
month, Diana faced a tabloid barrage in Britain focusing on her new boyfriend, "DI AND HER ARAB - PLAYBOY!"
screamed later headlines and the publication of photographs showing Diana in embraces with the 41-year-old film
producer whilst holidaying in the Mediterranean with him filled eight pages of London's Sunday Mirror newspaper. The
photos, taken by an Italian photographer, had been the subject of a bidding war and reportedly cost the Mirror
$400,000.The princess had already suggested in April that she might leave Britain. In an audiotape, recorded by two
paparazzi as she confronted them over photographing her, she's heard saying:"I'm seriously thinking of moving
away....I cannot...be battered every single day because someone is making money out of me.... I cannot be followed
around by all these men all the time. It's a nightmare. I can't go to lunch. I certainly don't go out in the evening.... I
hide in the back of cars."


Could Diana have been saved ?

By the time the Mercedes reached the stop light in the Place de la Concorde, at least half a dozen paparazzi had
caught up with it. Taking off just before the light changed, Henri - Paul headed onto the river front expressway along
the 4,000-ft. straight away leading to the Pont de L'Alma tunnel. Some 30 seconds later, Henri - Paul suddenly lost
control of the car and crashed into the tunnel's 13th pillar. The Mercedes spun around 180 degrees and came to rest
against the north wall with its horn blaring from the weight of the driver's inert body on the wheel. Henri -Paul and Dodi
were killed instantly. Diana and Trevor Rees-Jones were grievously injured.

"Within some 10 seconds of the crash, the first paparazzi arrived on the scene and began snapping pictures."When I
saw Diana in the backseat, I got shivers up my spine,you can't imagine how beautiful she was. It was devastating! "
says photographer Nikola Arsov, who had followed the decoy cars and arrived at the scene some time after the
accident. The impact is so great that parts of the radiator are reportedly found embedded in the chauffeur's body.

Photos taken at the scene show Diana in profile, quite recognizable with her elegantly coiffed blond hair. There is
blood on her forehead; trails of blood also trickle from her nose, mouth and left ear. Apart from the blood, her face is
not disfigured. Dodi's left leg, horribly bent and deformed by multiple fractures, lies on Diana's lap. Diana's left arm is
draped listlessly over his kid skin boot. After extensive on-site treatment to stabilize her condition, Diana was taken by
ambulance to a hospital, some 3.8 miles away. Diana was still breathing on arrival but on arrival went into fatal cardiac
arrest. Doctors opened her chest and discovered massive hemorrhaging from a torn left pulmonary vein. Despite the
repair of that wound, and a manual heart massage lasting some two hours, they were unable to restore a heartbeat.
Diana was pronounced dead at 4 a.m.

Diana was brought up from the basement operating room where she died to a room on the second-floor
intensive-care corridor where French and British officials had set up their crisis center. Nurses had cleaned the body
and covered her with a white sheet up to the shoulders. The sheet over Diana's body obscured her most grievous
wounds, and the blood had been wiped from her face. What was not apparent had been chronicled shortly before by
the Paris medical official who performed an external examination on Diana's body. The report showed a 3-cm wound
on the forehead, a cut over the lip, crushed ribs, a fractured right arm, an 8-cm cut on the right thigh, bruises on both
hands and feet and a cut on the right buttock. The body chart did not detail the internal injuries, however, since
Diana's chest had already been sewn up by the surgeon.

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(Date Posted:29/04/2007 16:07:10)

Truth about the Engagement Ring by Alberto Repossi

A crucial witness in the Princess Diana probe claimed that investigators pressured him to alter evidence in a bid to rig
the inquiry's findings.The disturbing allegations by Alberto Repossi, a central figure in the final weeks of Diana and
her boyfriend Dodi Fayed, strengthen fears of an Establishment cover-up to prevent the truth behind the deaths
being made public.

In an exclusive interview from Monte Carlo, jeweller Mr Repossi revealed how he came under pressure to change the
story of his part in the tragedy during lengthy interviews with officers from the Operation Paget inquiry. His explosive
testimony, backed by receipts and CCTV from his upmarket showroom in Monaco, confirms the couple picked out the
emerald and diamond band from a line of engagement rings called "Dis-Moi Oui- Tell Me Yes".

Diana and Dodi's engagement in the weeks leading up to their deaths in a car crash in Paris on August 31st, 1997,
sparked the enduring theory that Diana was murdered by the Establishment to prevent her marrying a Muslim.

Mr Repossi detailed a shocking catalogue of underhand attempts by investigators to force him to alter his evidence,
claiming officers used thinly - veiled threats that he was risking his reputation and adverse press coverage by
continuing to stick to the engagement story.

"I have for a long time followed closely the Daily Express's crusade for the truth and I strongly support any attempt to
determine exactly what caused this terrible tragedy, " said Mr Repossi."Until now I thought I could play my part by
co-operating fully with the inquiry. but my treatment during the interviews has convinced me that they are not
interested in establishing a true record of what happened."

The businessman was so outraged by his ordeal at the hands of British investigators that he sent a detailed letter of
protest to the officer leading Operation Paget, respected former Metropolitan Police chief Lord Stevens.In a damning
attack on the tactics used during his encounters with the inquiry team,

Mr Repossi said last night: "My real concern is that attempts were certainly made to get me to change what I knew to
be the truth"."I believe they were doing this in order to support theories or conclusions that they had already arrived
at or decided upon long before they saw me and my wife, Angela. They only seemed interested in trying to show we
were lying."Mr Repossi, jeweller by appointment to Monaco's royal family, contacted the Daily Express after reading
how Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, ( Later replaced ) the Establishment figure drafted in as coroner, wants next
month's preliminary hearings to be held in private and the inquest to go ahead without a jury.

"After reading your coverage, and my experiences and those of my wife with the inquiry team, I feel I can no longer
trust the authorities to speak the truth, "he said.

Mr Repossi said Diana and Dodi visited his Monte Carlo shop in August 1997, spotting the engagement ring in a
window display while on a stroll in the principality. Dodi Fayed asked for the ring to be sent to the jeweller's other
store at Place Vendome in Paris, which Mr Repossi opened especially so he could visit on August 30th. The ring was
later left at Dodi's apartment in the city, where he planned to present it to the Princess.

"These are things which I am absolutely certain about, " said Mr Repossi.The jeweller revealed he has been
interviewed three times, and his wife once, at Scotland Yard by officers from Lord Stevens' team. The final meeting,
he said, was in July this year when officers told him, in the course of a three-hour meeting, they knew the jewellery he
had sold the couple was not an engagement ring. "They warned me that if anyone lied to Lord Stevens and anyone
could include the Prime Minister or even the Secret Service then he had the power to get people sent to prison, " he
said."I told them I'd told the truth and if other people had changed their stories perhaps it was because the police had
persuaded them, in the same way they were trying to persuade me to change my story."They kept repeating the
warnings of the risk to my reputation and the bad press coverage I would get. Inspite of all this, I was not prepared to
change what I'd said before because it was the truth."

Mr Repossi claimed officers had told him the final interview would be an informal chat to bring him up to date with the
inquiry's progress, but he is convinced the meeting was tape-recorded in the hope he would make an unguarded
admission."I spent hours and hours of what I can only describe as interrogation, " he said."My wife and I were
separated and the officers often left the room to confer with colleagues interrogating my wife, and came back to trick
me."When the jeweller asked for copies of the interview tapes, two of the five cassettes he was sent were blank, he
claims. The Yard blamed technical problems. "This is very unprofessional if this is the case, " Mr Repossi said.

He also complained that investigators used inconsistencies in his recollection of events in 1997 to suggest he was
telling lies. "I wasn't seen or interviewed about any of this by the French police or the original investigating judge, " he
said."The first time I was asked to talk about exactly what happened was eight years after the crash, so it's hardly
surprising I've forgotten or become confused about some of the details. I feel that the investigators took me by
surprise with the details they were trying to get me to remember after eight years, and causing confusion which in the
last meeting I had they used to imply that I was a liar."

Mr Repossi said he was also infuriated by claims made by bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones, the only survivor of the
crash, who cashed in on the controversy by publishing a book in 2000 roundly rejecting the assertion that Dodi had
bought an engagement ring in Monte Carlo."I realised I had to speak up after I saw the book by Trevor Rees-Jones,
because he was telling such outrageous lies, " said Mr Repossi."

My intention has always been to help get to the truth of what actually happened." Fears that an open investigation is
being stifled by the Establishment have grown amid concern that Lord Stevens' inquiry is being closed down
prematurely by the Government, with vital questions left unexplored and unanswered.

A spokesman for the former police chief declined to comment on the latest claims. A spokesman for Mohamed al -
Fayed, who is fighting to have the inquest into the deaths of his son and Diana held openly and in public, said last
night: "He is addressing his concerns through the courts and does not want to comment on this particular aspect.".