Princess Diana's death is still shrouded in mystery
Princess Diana's death is still shrouded in mystery
Sunday December 30,2012
RUSSIAN intelligence agents in France had become suspicious of the sudden arrival of three senior MI6 officers in Paris before Princess Diana’s death, a new book claims.
Author Gennady Sokolov argues that she was killed in “a distinctly English murder” contracted out by the British spies.
In the book, to be published in Moscow next year, he will say the most likely scenario is that a microchip was planted in her car enabling its steering and brakes to be disabled on a signal from an operative who joined the chasing paparazzi.
He claims: “There will never be documents about it. Never. Those responsible must all have been liquidated. The traces have also gone. Some of the witnesses disappeared in the strangest manner.”
Sokolov, who has many contacts in the Russian secret services, said the MI6 officers had arrived and stayed incognito. “Normally when players of such rank are in the country the host intelligence services are aware about it. Here DST (French counter intelligence) had no idea.
“Our people were following them. After all, they were leading faces of British intelligence. Whatever people say about our guys from Yasenevo (headquarters of Russian foreign intelligence, the SVR) they know their rivals very well.”
Sokolov claimed he had met Russian operatives who were involved in seeking to establish the role of the senior British agents in France.
The presence of MI6 figures was known to the Scotland Yard inquiry into Diana’s death headed by former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Lord Stevens.
There will never be documents about it. Never
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Author Gennady Sokolov |
An inquest returned a verdict of unlawful killing, blaming the drunken driving of Ritz hotel security boss Henri Paul and pursuing paparazzi photographers for the fatal crash in the Alma tunnel in August, 1997.
The security services have always denied any involvement in the Princess’s death.
Sokolov’s claims echo some of the views of Mohamed Al Fayed, whose son Dodi, Diana’s lover, also died in the crash. The author’s dossier on the Princess’s death was passed to the former Harrods owner before the inquest, though he never had any contact with the tycoon, he said.
In an article in the Komsoloskaya Pravda newspaper, Sokolov said he had identified “at least three dozen absurdities” which point to foul play and a sophisticated cover-up.
“Diana became a real threat to the Windsors,” he said. “There was a strong rumour she was pregnant and I think that it was not a coincidence that her body was mummified an hour before it was sent to London. After that it would be impossible to identify if she was pregnant.”