Diana photographers investigated on privacy charges

Two photographers cleared of contributing to Princess Diana's death have been placed under investigation on charges of invading the privacy of Dodi Fayed.

The case stems from a complaint by Mohamed Al Fayed, Dodi's father, said a lawyer for the photographers.

Al Fayed contends the two men invaded his son's privacy when they photographed him on August 31, 1997, the night of the fatal crash.

Diana, Dodi Fayed and their driver, Henri Paul, were killed in the high-speed crash in a tunnel under the Alma bridge in Paris.

Bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones was badly injured but survived.

The two photographers, Serge Benhamou and Laszlo Veres, were among nine photographers and one motorcyclist cleared in September 1999 - and on appeal last October - of causing the three deaths.

Judge Herve Stephan ruled that alcohol, drugs and excessive speed - all on the part of the driver - had caused the crash, and said that the photographers' behaviour, while severely criticised by witnesses, did not constitute a crime under French law.

But Judge Stephan never explored the charge of invading privacy, and the appeals court ruled that the charge should be investigated. The case involves only pictures of Dodi Fayed because of all the victims, his family is the only one that has made the claim.

A third photographer, Jacques Langevin, was already placed under investigation - one step short of being formally charged - at the end of May. Other photographers who followed Diana's car that night from the Ritz Hotel are due to appear before the judge in the next few days, their lawyers said.

"The photographers did their job of providing information," said their lawyer, Virginie Bardet, after today's court session with Judge Muriel Josie.

"The first judge established that they weren't guilty of the death of Diana and Dodi Fayed. The questions is now, do we want to keep informed, or do we want to censor journalists?"