Nick Fielding – The Sunday Times May 30, 2004
The former MI6 officer Richard Tomlinson is to be questioned by Scotland Yard detectives conducting an inquiry into the death of Diana, Princess of Wales.
Tomlinson created a storm six years ago when he claimed that Henri Paul, the French driver of the Mercedes in which Diana and Dodi Fayed had died, had been a paid informant of MI6, Britain’s external intelligence service.
He also suggested a possible “assassination” method, saying he had seen files showing that MI6 had a plan to kill Slobodan Milosevic, the former Yugoslav president, during a visit to Geneva. According to the files, a strobe flash gun was to be shone at Milosevic’s driver in a tunnel, causing his car to crash.
The mention of this specific technique has excited conspiracy theorists, who point out the similarities to the circumstances of Diana’s death. Several witnesses said they saw flashing lights shortly before Diana’s car crashed into a concrete pillar in the Place d’Alma underpass in Paris.
Tomlinson made the allegations in August 1998 in an affidavit to Hervé Stephan, the French judge who was conducting an inquiry into the deaths. He believed that documents held by MI6 would yield important new evidence, but no approach was made to the agency.
“I have always maintained that investigators need to get hold of Henri Paul’s personal file from MI6,” Tomlinson said last night. “It would not rule out murder, but if this incident was not an accident, that would be in the file.”
Tomlinson said he is not suggesting that there was a conspiracy, merely that the MI6 information should be examined by investigators.
Tomlinson, who now lives in France, caused controversy three years ago when he became the first MI6 officer to publish details of his work in a book. He agreed to talk to Scotland Yard after being assured that he would not be arrested for breaching the Official Secrets Act in the book.
In his original affidavit Tomlinson said that he first came across Paul’s name in 1992, while he was with the eastern European controllerate of MI6 investigating a plot to smuggle advanced weaponry out of the disintegrating Soviet Union.
Meetings between figures in the plot took place at the Ritz in Paris and Paul, a security officer at the hotel, provided information on the project to his MI6 controller.
www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-1127633,00.html
See also:
Affidavit of Richard Tomlinson
www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=2
Last updated 02/06/2004
Homepage