PARIS (AFP) — Judge in charge of the inquest into Princess Diana's death has written to thank France's justice minister for her country's "excellent cooperation" in the investigation.
In a letter to Justice Minister Rachida Dati released by her ministry Friday, Coroner Lord Justice Scott Baker thanks France for helping to organise a trip by jurors to view the scene of Diana's fatal Paris car crash in 1997.
Jurors last October visited the Ritz hotel where Diana and her boyfriend Dodi Fayed spent their last evening, and the Pont de l'Alma underpass where their speeding limousine crashed.
"Given the differences in our two countries' legal systems, the task of gathering witness statements for a London jury was not easy... I would like to thank you for the help of the French police," the coroner wrote.
Some 80 French witnesses were heard via videolink during the six-month inquest.
The inquest earlier in April returned a verdict of unlawful killing Monday, blaming the driving of Diana's chauffeur Henri Paul and paparazzi photographers pursuing her car at high speed.
During the inquest, Dodi's father Mohamed Al Fayed alleged that the couple were killed in an establishment plot involving senior royals including Queen Elizabeth II's husband Prince Philip, to stop her marrying a Muslim.
The coroner said in his summing-up of the case that there was "not a shred of evidence" to support Al Fayed's theory.
Two previous police investigations -- one French and one British -- concluded that the deaths were a tragic accident and that Paul was over the drink-drive limit speeding to get away from chasing photographers.
In the weeks before their death, photographs of Diana and Dodi enjoying a Mediterranean cruise were splashed across newspapers and magazines across the globe, prompting intense competition for shots of the couple together.
The death of Diana plunged Britain into days of mourning, with thousands of people leaving flowers outside her Kensington Palace residence in London.
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