Al Fayed abandons quest to prove Diana was murdered

LONDON -- Mohamed Al Fayed said Tuesday that he was abandoning a quest to prove his belief Princess Diana and his son were killed by British secret agents.

Al Fayed said he reluctantly accepted a coroner's jury ruling that Diana and Dodi Fayed were unlawfully killed due to reckless speed and drinking by their driver, and by the reckless pursuit of the paparazzi chasing them.

"Enough is enough," Fayed said in an interview with ITV News broadcast Tuesday night. "For the sake of the two princes, who I know loved their mother."

Diana's sons, Princes William and Harry, endorsed the verdict delivered by a jury Monday.

Al Fayed, the Harrods department store owner, said he still believed the couple was murdered and that the evidence presented at the inquest supported his theory.

"I'm a father who has lost his son and I've done everything for 10 years. But now with the verdict I accept it, but with reservations," he said.

"But I have [had] enough. I'm leaving the rest for God to get my revenge," Al Fayed said. "I'm not doing anything anymore. ... This is the end."

The coroner, Lord Justice Scott Baker, had told the jury that Al Fayed and his legal team had not produced any evidence that the Secret Intelligence Service, known as MI6, was involved in the fatal car crash in Paris on Aug. 31, 1997.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown backed the princes as well. "I think the princes, William and Harry, have spoken for the whole country when they say this is time to bring this to an end," Brown said Tuesday.

Al Fayed had claimed that MI6 agents were taking orders from Prince Philip, the husband of Queen Elizabeth II.

When he testified under oath, Al Fayed said he would accept the jury's verdict.

The coroner disclosed Tuesday that he would not seek a police investigation of Diana's former butler, Paul Burrell, for alleged perjury. In his summation, Baker had said Burrell was among the witnesses who had obviously lied at the inquest or elsewhere.

Burrell, who has written two books about his years with Diana, had been caught on a hidden camera saying he had not told the whole truth during his three days of testimony at the inquest.