Princess Diana Inquest Delayed To October

The inquest into the death of Britain's Princess Diana was postponed until October.

Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, who had hoped to start the delayed inquest in May, put the date back after pleas from the lawyers of Mohamed al Fayed, whose son Dodi died in a car crash in Paris with Diana in 1997, for more time to study legal papers.

Fayed, owner of the luxury Harrods department store in London, has long argued that the couple were victims of a plot hatched by British security services.

That sparked a dramatic courtroom clash in a preliminary hearing on Monday when Butler-Sloss challenged al Fayed to back up his allegations.

"There is not a shred of evidence given to me about these allegations," she said. "If there is no evidence to support them, I shall not present them to the jury."

Fayed's lawyer Michael Mansfield had argued that the full inquest should be delayed until October to give him more time to study reports and expert opinion.

Diana, 36, Dodi, 42, and their chauffeur were killed when their Mercedes limousine smashed into a pillar in a Paris road tunnel as they sped away from the Ritz Hotel, pursued by paparazzi on motorbikes.

A three-year British police investigation found last year that the crash was an accident and not part of a murder plot as Fayed claims.

The British inquiry backed a French probe which concluded that chauffeur Henri Paul, acting head of security at the Ritz which is owned by Fayed, was to blame because he was drunk, under the influence of anti-depressants and driving too fast.

The inquest has taken a decade to come to court as Britain had to wait for the French legal process to be exhausted and then for the British police investigation to run its course.

Under British law, an inquest is needed to formally determine the cause of death when someone dies unnaturally.