Dodi was to propose on night of crash, inquiry told

PRINCESS DIANA was planning to announce her engagement to her partner Dodi Al-Fayed when they were killed in a car crash eight years ago.

The inquiry into her death was told the couple were on their way to Dodi’s Paris apartment, where he planned to propose to her with a €191,000 ring when tragedy struck on August 31, 1997.

Monte Carlo-based jeweller Alberto Repossi told Scotland Yard police that the Princess had already picked out the emerald- and diamond-encrusted ring.

Mr Repossi also claims to have video and documentary evidence.

“In order to avoid any distortion of the facts, I am enclosing herewith a copy of my consignment book, which clearly indicates that the jewel in question was, at this early date, annotated by me as being an engagement ring,” he said in a statement.

“It was an engagement ring; Diana chose it herself and Dodi picked it up from my shop in Paris the night before they died. I met them both in St Tropez and Diana picked the ring herself.”

Mr Repossi’s claims tie in with comments made by the Princess while on holiday with Dodi weeks before her death.

She told journalists that she was planning to make an announcement that would “give everyone a big surprise”.

Investigators are reportedly examining the likelihood that the announcement was to be her engagement. Mr Repossi first came into contact with Diana when a director of the Ritz Hotel contacted him to say the couple were interested in a ring they had seen in his Monte Carlo store.

Accompanied by a bodyguard and Claude Roulet, deputy manager of the Ritz, Dodi visited the Repossi boutique on Place Vendome in Paris on August 30 to collect the ring.

News of the engagement could add fuel to rumours that Diana’s death was not an accident.

Harrods owner Mohamed Al-Fayed, Dodi’s father, has always insisted the couple were killed because the Royal Family did not want the mother of the future King of England marrying an Egyptian-born Muslim.

Ten months before the crash, Diana had expressed concern to her butler Paul Burrell that she feared she was going to be killed in a deliberately planned car accident.