A Paris court has ordered the reopening of an investigation to determine if there was any falsification of toxicology tests of the driver held responsible for the crash that killed Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997.
Tests deemed that the driver, Henri Paul, who was killed along with Diana and her companion Dodi Fayed, had an excessive amount of alcohol in his blood, as well as medication incompatible with alcohol, as he sped through the French capital.
However, in a June 29th decision, the appeals court's investigative unit ordered the reopening of an inquiry - closed twice previously - into whether the tests might have been falsified, the judicial officials said.
The investigation was initially opened after Paul's parents filed a complaint for falsification of blood tests taken within days of the August 31, 1997 accident in a Paris traffic tunnel.
Jean and Gisele Paul specifically asked that DNA tests on the blood samples be made to verify that it was their son's blood that was tested.
Mohamed al Fayed, father of Dodi Fayed, joined Paul's parents in seeking the information. Al Fayed, who became a civil party in the case, is behind a recently opened investigation to determine whether the accident could have resulted from an alleged plot to kill the princess because of her relationship with Dodi.
Investigative Judge Corinne Goetzmann threw out the case on alleged falsification of tests in March 2003. In September, the appeals court asked her to continue the investigation, notably hearing civil parties. After doing so, she threw out the case a second time thus year.
In yet another aspect of the legal tugs of war that have followed Diana's death, a verdict is to be delivered on September 14 on whether three photographers who snapped photos of the crash scene were guilty of invasion of privacy.
The three photographers were acquitted in November, but both the prosecutor's office and Mohammed al Fayed appealed. The photographs were never printed.