Diana was not meant to die, says former agent

FORMER islander Annie Machon has claimed Britain's security services planned to injure ' not assassinate ' Princess Diana to try to break up her relationship with her lover, Dodi Al Fayed. The former MI5 spy, who worked for the service between 1991 and 1995, claimed that MI6 did not want Diana dead because it was worried she would become a martyr. The plan ended up going tragically wrong.

Guernsey-born Ms Machon is the partner of David Shayler, the former MI5 officer jailed under the Official Secrets Act for disclosing information obtained while in service.

In a book, Spies, Lies and Whistleblowers, which has been passed for publication by her former employer, Ms Machon said:

'Like many British people, when David and I first learnt of the deaths of Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed we thought the crash was a terrible accident caused by paparazzi pursuing the two at high speed.'

She said she knew Diana's claims to have been under MI5 surveillance in the years before the crash were untrue so, she said, her partner made his own enquiries and she quoted him as saying:

'Having looked at the available evidence, I am personally inclined to think that MI6 paid to have Diana and Dodi involved in an accident in the same way they tried to have Gaddafi assassinated, using a 'surrogate'.

'Because Diana was either getting married to Dodi or she was pregnant, the authorities planned the crash to ensure she was taken away from the Al Fayed family or that she lost her unborn child. The only reason I don't believe that the authorities didn't actually aim to assassinate her was that they did not want to make her a martyr at the expense of the Royal Family ' as actually happened.'

The book follows reports that British intelligence officers are at the centre of the inquiry into Diana's death.

'The British media continue to call the matter a conspiracy theory and we feel there is compelling information to indicate that the events were anything but accidental,' said Ms Machon.

'For example, eyewitnesses to the crash reported seeing a white Fiat Uno in the tunnel at the precise moment when there was a bright flash of light which led to the crash.

'Mohammed Al Fayed's team has traced the white Fiat Uno to James Andanson, a paparazzo.' In August 1998, former MI6 officer Richard Tomlinson gave a sworn statement about Andanson's connections with the service.

'When interviewed by French police, Andanson claimed not to have been in Paris. Yet forensic tests carried out by Al Fayed's security teams on the vehicle and the crash tunnel indicated that the white Fiat Uno had been in the tunnel and had been sold just hours after the crash.

'Six months later Andanson was found dead in a burnt-out car in the south of France, 400 miles from where he was supposed to be.

'The authorities have claimed that he committed suicide, although his death has all the hallmarks of an intelligence-service assassination.'

Ms Machon added:

'The vast majority of the British people of course now believe that the crash was no accident.'