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A British coroner's decision not to summon a jury for the Diana, Princess of Wales inquest will fuel conspiracy theories about her death, her former bodyguard lamented Monday.
Ken Wharfe added that the move, announced by coroner Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, would also frustrate Princes William and Harry's wish that the probe into their mother's final hours should be quick and transparent.
Harrods owner Mohammed Al Fayed, father of Diana's boyfriend Dodi, who died with her in the 1997 Paris car crash, claims the deaths were part of a British establishment plot to prevent the future king's mother from marrying a Muslim.
"The fact that Butler-Sloss has decided not to have a jury at all will simply now refuel Mohammed Al Fayed's belief that this is yet another establishment cover-up and I don't think it serves the interests of the inquiry or the inquest for this to happen," he told Sky News television.
Wharfe, who protected Diana for six years from 1987, added that the "rightful course" would have been to let a jury decide what had taken place.
"The fact that this has happened is just going to prolong the Diana inquiry and I think that William and Harry will certainly wish this to be laid to rest, but I'm afraid this is going to run now for some time to come and it's highly regrettable in my view," he said.
Butler-Sloss announced that she would hear the inquest alone in a 34-page judgement which she issued after analysing legal arguments from a preliminary hearing last week.
"I do not propose to summons a jury and I shall sit alone to hear the two inquests," Butler-Sloss said in her judgement.
Explaining her decision, she said that it was important to reach "a careful and fully reasoned decision reviewing all the relevant evidence" and that this could "only be given by the coroner".
The inquests, expected to start no later than May at London's Royal Courts of Justice, will be held concurrently at a single hearing so are effectively joint.
William and Harry used a letter to last week's hearing to plea for an "open, fair and transparent" inquest which should conclude "swiftly".
In December, an official 800-page report by former London police chief Lord John Stevens said that the deaths were a "tragic accident" and not a murder plot.
Butler-Sloss had earlier ruled out a jury made up of senior members of the royal household, as would be normal for royal inquests.
Under British law, inquests are only used to establish the basic facts about a death and cannot determine blame or criminal or civil liability.
A spokesman for al-Fayed declined to comment immediately on the coroner's decision, saying his lawyers were studying her decision and may issue a statement later.
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AFP 151623 GMT 01 07
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