Fayed wins minor legal victory in France

PARIS, Oct. 23 (UPI) -- Mohammed al Fayed, who has been trying for years to prove his son, Dodi, and Princess Diana were deliberately killed, has won a small victory in France.

A French court, the Court of Grand Instance in Paris, awarded the businessman about 5,000 pounds ($8,000) in compensation, The Daily Mail reported. The damages are for what the court found to be unnecessary delay in the investigation into the 1997 crash in a Paris roadway tunnel that killed Dodi Fayed, the princess and their driver, Henri Paul.

The five-year French investigation concluded Paul, a Fayed employee, was drunk and that his driving was the major cause of the crash. Fayed has been trying to prove for more than a decade that the crash was set up by British agents because Diana was pregnant.

Fayed and Paul's parents filed a lawsuit over the long investigation in 2007. The Court of Grand Instance concluded there had been about two years of delay caused by confusion over Paul's autopsy and blood tests.