Al Fayed's suspicions 'immediate'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/uk/7119193.stm

Version 0 of 1.

Mohamed Al Fayed said his son had been the victim of a plot or an assassination within seconds of being told of his death, a court has heard.

Frank Klein, boss of the Ritz hotel in Paris, told the Princess Diana inquest how he broke the news of Dodi Al Fayed's death in a call to his father.

Mr Klein said that Mr Fayed had told him: "This is not an accident, this is a plot or an assassination."

He added that Dodi had told him he was going to get engaged.

The princess and Dodi Al Fayed died after the black Mercedes they were travelling in crashed in a Paris tunnel on 31 August, 1997, along with their driver Henri Paul.

Ritz president Mr Klein, who was not in Paris on the night of the accident but at his holiday home in the south of France, told the London inquest he was told what had happened by telephone.

He said, 'Frank, I know more than you know, more than you think' Frank Klein

Fighting back tears, he told the court of the phone call he then made - 20 minutes after the crash - to Mohamed Al Fayed, who sat just yards away from him in court.

"I said, 'Mr Al Fayed, very sorry to disturb you, there has been a terrible accident... Dodi passed away and the driver,'" Mr Klein told the court.

"Mr Al Fayed said 'what about the princess?'"

Mr Klein told Mr Al Fayed that he thought the princess was still alive.

"Mr Al Fayed, very calm, said to me, 'Frank, this is not an accident, this is a plot or an assassination'.

"I said, 'you cannot say that, it's an accident'.

"And he said, 'Frank, I know more than you know, more than you think'."

Jewellers shop

Mr Klein said he had received a call from Dodi Al Fayed, two weeks before the accident, in which he was told the couple would be in Paris at the end of the month.

He told me he was going to move to the Villa Windsor with his girlfriend and he told me that they were going to get married Frank Klein

Mr Klein told the court: "I remember very well, he called me and he said, 'Frank I just passed by a jewellers shop'.

"He pointed out it was Van Cleef and he said, 'I want to buy some jewellery, I'm going to get engaged'."

Mr Klein said that in a second conversation, a couple of days before the crash, Dodi Al Fayed had spoken about the Villa Windsor house in Paris, owned by Mohamed Al Fayed.

Mr Klein said: "He did not mention the princess by name but he did tell me that he was going to stay in Paris - to live.

"He told me he was going to move to the Villa Windsor with his girlfriend and he told me, all the time in English, that they were going to get married."