Mar 12, 2010, 12:02 GMT
A leading lawyer believes a plan to "sabotage" Britain's Princess Diana's life went wrong and led to her death.
Michael Mansfield QC claims there was an operation to end her relationship with lover Dodi Fayed and stop her from criticising the British government over arms sales, which accidentally resulted in her death when her car crashed in a Parisian tunnel while being chased by paparazzi in 1997.
Michael - who represented Dodi's father Mohamed al Fayed at a previous inquest into Diana's death - said: "I don't believe anyone wanted to see her dead. I think there was a plan to sabotage the relationship and alter her life, to try to stop her activities. But this plan went very badly and ended with her death."
Mohamed has long held the view that the death of Diana and his son was a conspiracy involving a number of highly placed members of the British government.
He also refused to accept the official verdict of the inquest into their deaths, which concluded that the couple had been unlawfully killed, blaming the negligent driving of their chauffeur Henri Paul and the paparazzi photographers chasing them on motorbikes.
Mansfield supports his view, adding to the Daily Mail newspaper: "I believe the relationship between Princess Diana and Dodi al Fayed displeased the authorities.
"In spite of all the work Mohamed al Fayed did for children and hospitals, he was persona non grata in Britain.
"As far as Diana was concerned, she had given interviews attacking the Royal Family for the way they treated her, but I think what most annoyed the authorities was that Diana became very actively involved in the campaign against land mines.
"The UK arms sales industry is huge, it's one of the biggest three in the world. The investigation into Diana's death showed she was preparing to denounce British complicity in the sale of weapons to countries that do not respect human rights."
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