Photographers in Princess Diana case acquitted by appeals court

The Associated Press

PARIS -- A Paris appeals court on Tuesday upheld the acquittals of three photographers accused of invasion of privacy after they took pictures of Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed at the scene of their deadly crash.

Jacques Langevin, Christian Martinez and Fabrice Chassery were first acquitted last November. Fayed's father, Egyptian-born billionaire Mohammed al Fayed, filed an appeal, which the Paris court rejected.

Langevin's attorney, Francois Stefanaggi, did not rule out that al Fayed might again seek to appeal. But he said the ruling showed that photographers were not responsible for the famous couple's deaths.

The three men, whose photos were confiscated and not published, were among the swarm of photographers who pursued the car carrying Diana and her boyfriend across Paris on Aug. 31, 1997, and took photos after it slammed into the pillar of a traffic tunnel.

The photos in question in the case showed Diana and Fayed leaving Paris' Ritz Hotel or after the crash.

At last year's trial, the court ruled that a crashed vehicle on a public highway is not a private area -- a precedent-setting decision -- and said that anyone in the street where Diana and Fayed crashed could have seen them. It also said the couple knew they would be photographed when leaving the Ritz.

The photographers were tried only for taking pictures of Fayed, as the trial stemmed from a criminal complaint for invasion of privacy filed by his father. Diana's relatives and the British royal family were not plaintiffs in the case.

A five-year investigation into the crash concluded that chauffeur Henri Paul, who also was killed, had been drinking and was speeding.

In 2002, France's highest court dropped manslaughter charges against nine photographers, including the three whose acquittal was upheld Tuesday.