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London/Paris: The paparazzi blamed for the killing of Diana, Princess of Wales, and Dodi Fayed will not face any charges over the deaths, French prosecutors said on Monday night.
The photographers were cleared of any blame following a lengthy French police investigation, and "the process will not be repeated simply because of the opinion of a foreign jury", said a senior source at the Palais de Justice in Paris.
Relatives of the princess and Fayed could still pursue private prosecutions against the paparazzi, but neither the Royal Family nor Mohammad Fayed, who has always maintained that an MI6 plot was behind the crash, are likely to pursue such actions.
Six photographers and a driver working for one of them were arrested in the Alma underpass in Paris immediately after the fatal crash in August 1997. Together with three other paparazzi arrested shortly afterwards, they were held on suspicion of "involuntary manslaughter" and failing to assist at the scene of an accident, but in 1999, after an 18-month police investigation, prosecutors decided that none of them would be charged. Mohammad Fayed lost an appeal against the decision in 2004.
The inquest heard damning eyewitness evidence about the behaviour of the paparazzi, including suggestions that a "blocking car" had been used to slow down the princess's Mercedes so those giving chase could catch up.
Criticism
The photographers took pictures of the wrecked car before any of them called for help, and one of them got into a scuffle with a passer-by as he allegedly tried to prevent other photographers getting close to the vehicle. Some took pictures from less than two metres away, with the bodies of Paul and Dodi Fayed and the mortally injured princess clearly visible inside the car.
They carried on taking photographs when the emergency services were on the scene and as the bodies were removed.
The coroner, Lord Justice Scott Baker, said "there may well be" even more damning photographs in existence that the photographers have kept secret.
The paparazzi drew further criticism when all of them refused to give evidence to the inquest.
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