Princess Diana not engaged - says key witness

Jun 26, 2006, 18:31 GMT

Britain's late Princess Diana's lover Dodi Al Fayed had not purchased an engagement ring before the couple's death - a key witness has revealed.

Jeweller Alberto Repossi - who sold a gold band to Dodi prior to the Paris crash - has been criticised a number of times in the past for changing his evidence.

Repossi made the startling retraction in a televised interview with American journalist Daphne Barak, and Scotland Yard detectives now reportedly want to re-interview him.

According to Britain's News Of The World newspaper, the jeweler - who has been pulled up on several inconsistencies in his evidence before - denies he ever claimed the ring Dodi bought was for his engagement to Diana.

During the interview he told Barak that Dodi and the princess had visited his shop on August 5, which contradicts Mohammed Al Fayed's claim that his son and Diana were shopping for engagement rings on August 23 - a week before their deaths.

When quizzed about the contradiction, Repossi said: 'Maybe he made confusion. But no, it is not true.

'Diana and Dodi only met on July 11, which makes it unlikely that less than a month later they would have been getting engaged.'

Repossi still insists that the pair had purchased a ring but when asked whether it was an engagement ring, he reportedly replied: 'Absolutely not.'

The jeweller also revealed that since the tragic car crash in 1997, he has frequently spoken to Harrods boss, Mohammed Al Fayed.

He said: 'Every time he's talking about Dodi he's crying and I think this is a sign that he's a father and that he cannot forget this.'

The new evidence is set to undermine Mohammed's conspiracy theory, which rests on claims that Diana was engaged to his son and pregnant with their child.

He believes the couple were killed as a result of a plot to prevent an heir to the throne being half-Muslim.

Chief investigator, Lord Stevens, has also revealed new forensic techniques prove Diana was not pregnant at the time of her death.

Copyright 2006 BANG Media International