In an unprecedented step that shook the French media and legal professions yesterday, Magistrate Herve Stephan indicted six photographers and a motorcyclist for their suspected role in the death of Princess Diana, her Egyptian companion, Mr Dodi al-Fayed, and the couple's drunken driver, Mr Paul Henri. The seven were officially "put under investigation" - the first stage in French criminal proceedings - for manslaughter and failure to come to the assistance of a person in danger. All were freed yesterday, but two were required to post bail and forbidden from working as photographers or leaving the country.
The severity of the indictments came as a surprise, especially after the revelation that the driver was inebriated and travelling at four times the legal speed limit. Judge Stephan apparently wanted to send a powerful signal that paparazzi will be held criminally - as well as morally and financially - responsible for harassment.
Mr Mohamad al-Fayed, the father of Dodi, last night denied his employee, Mr Henri, was obviously drunk or that he taunted photographers as the group left the Ritz Hotel. But Ritz employees were telling French journalists that Mr Henri was visibly "sloshed" even before it was confirmed by his blood test on Monday. Christian Martinez, one of the indicted photographers, is sticking to his assertion that Mr Henri dared the paparazzi to catch up with the Mercedes he drove. On these and other unresolved questions, the testimony of Princess Diana's surviving bodyguard, Mr Trevor Rees-Jones, could be crucial.
Lawyers for the photographers denounced the indictments as "theatrical" and said they would not have been handed down had the victim of the accident been anyone other than Princess Diana.
There has been widespread public outrage against the paparazzi who chased her; the graffiti saying "paparazzi, assassins" still marks the Paris tunnel where she was fatally injured.
According to a police report quoted by RTL radio station yesterday, some photographers obstructed a policeman who was trying to come to the aid of the dying princess.
The report, by the first two policemen to arrive at the crash, said one "rushed to the scene to try to move the photographers away but encountered strong resistance".
The paparazzi were "virulent, disgusting; they were continuing to take pictures and were deliberately preventing the police officer from aiding the victim", said the police report. Yesterday's proceedings provided each photographer and a humble motorcycle driver with their 15 minutes of fame. In an eerie role reversal, the paparazzi were the object of an enormous stake-out by their fellow journalists in and around the Palace of Justice; the films they shot are being processed and studied to determine how they behaved after the car crash.
Hundreds of journalists from around the world waited almost continuously outside the Brigade Criminelle and the Palace of Justice until last night in the hope of catching a glimpse of the liberated paparazzi. (additional reporting by AFP).
