Diana jury deliberates verdicts
 Mr Al Fayed has attended the inquest regularly and appeared as a witness |
The jury in the Princess Diana inquest has retired to consider its verdicts.
Before they left, coroner Lord Justice Scott Baker instructed them to deliver unanimous verdicts.
The inquest into the 1997 crash in Paris that killed Diana, Dodi and chauffeur Henri Paul began six months ago to the day.
The jury will decide if the deaths were the result of an accident, unlawful killing by negligence, or unexplained, but they cannot say they were murder.
Mohamed Al Fayed - the father of the princess's companion, Dodi - and her sister, Lady Sarah McCorquodale, were among those attending London's High Court.
Coroner Lord Justice Scott Baker had already told the jurors they could not find the crash was an "unlawful killing by the Duke of Edinburgh or anyone else in a staged accident".
Witnesses
Earlier this week the coroner gave the jury five verdict options, which included unlawful killing by grossly negligent driving of the paparazzi in pursuing vehicles - a level of negligence he said would amount to manslaughter.
He said that to return this verdict they had to satisfy the criminal standard of proof - meaning they had to be "sure" - rather than the civil standard, which is based on the balance of probabilities.
Unlawful killing through the gross negligence of the driver Henri Paul; and unlawful killing by the grossly negligent driving of both the following vehicles and Mr Paul were also given as options.
A verdict of accidental death could be returned if none of the previous verdicts were established. The jury was also given the option of an open verdict.
The six women and five men will deliberate on evidence from 250 witnesses who testified either in person or through statements.
Earlier Lord Justice Scott Baker told the court said there was "not a shred of evidence" that the Duke of Edinburgh ordered Princess Diana's death or that it was organised by MI6.
Conspiracy theories suggested by Dodi's father Mohamed about the deaths were without foundation, he insisted.
The jury also has the option of highlighting possible contributory factors such as drink-driving, the presence of bright lights or the passengers' failure to wear a seatbelt.
During his summing up the coroner told the panel to treat the evidence of several witnesses with severe caution.
He told them: "Witnesses who give evidence in our courts fall into many different categories ranging from those at one end of the scale who are patently honest and reliable to those at the other end on whose evidence you would not wish to swing a cat."
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That was reported by the BBC Online New at 13:06 GMT, Wednesday, 2 April 2008 14:06 UK.
I will tell you my analysis after the verdict is announced, otherwise I may be held in contempt of court.
The Garuda.
