HARRY’S DI MINES TRIBUTE
In a world exclusive interview, Vietnamese-born Le Van Thanh spoke for the first time about claims it was his white Fiat Uno that struck Diana’s Mercedes.
He revealed that when British police asked him to come to the UK to talk to them about the crash, some French officers told him: “Don’t go there.”
Diana died after her car hit a pillar in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris on August 31, 1997.
Her companion Dodi Fayed and his driver Henri Paul were also killed. Diana’s bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones survived, but was badly injured.
Van Thanh’s father claimed in 2006 that his son had his Uno car repaired and resprayed later that day. Investigators believe this could suggest it collided with Diana’s vehicle.
Now, Van Thanh has responded to those claims for the first time. It has sparked calls for the investigation into Diana’s death to be reopened as a cold case. Van Thanh, a
22-year-old taxi driver at the time, was questioned by French police in
1997 after forensic experts concluded white paint on his vehicle matched that found on the wreckage of Diana’s car.
While he gave a statement to the inquest denying he was the driver of the Fiat which fled the scene, he was only ever interviewed about the crash by French police.
He has now finally been tracked down. And he has explained for the first time why he refused to come to the UK to help police enquiries.
Van Thanh told a team writing a book on the crash that he will “receive” Scotland Yard investigators if they approach him.
At his home in Paris, the bodybuilder and chauffeur was told British investigators are still desperate to talk to him about the night of Di’s accident. He replied: “I know they will come. Several times they told me they would come back.
“Because eventually they told me, ‘Yes, they will come.’ They wanted me to go to England.
“You know what the French police told me? ‘It’s not the same law as in France, don’t go there. Don’t go there.’ He told me, ‘It’s not the same law as in France, don’t go there…don’t go there (to England).’”
When questioned via a translator about his father’s claim that his white Fiat Uno was repainted red, he added: “The police report – they know why I repainted it. When you have no money and you have a damaged old car, what do you do?”
Van Thanh added that he felt “exonerated” and “innocent” over accusations he was involved in Diana’s death.
Former Met Police Commissioner Lord Stevens headed Operation Paget, the inquiry into conspiracy theories surrounding the crash. In 2017, he said Van Thanh’s testimony could help disprove such ideas. He added: “What we have said to Mr Thanh is, ‘We believe you were the driver of the Fiat. Talk us through what happened.’
“We don’t blame him for the accident. My Paget report said that a Fiat Uno was involved but was not the cause of the crash. We are still trying to interview him.”
The team of journalists who spoke to Van Thanh this summer produced a podcast, Diana: Case Solved and a book of the same name, which is out now.
Van Thanh’s new claim that some French police officers ordered him not to cooperate has sparked calls for the investigation into Diana’s death to be reopened. Michael Mansfield QC, who represented Dodi’s father Mohamed Al-Fayed at Diana’s inquest, said: “There is a real question mark here because the French authorities were particularly anxious to ensure that it was blamed to the paparazzi.
“He (Le Van Thanh) had the car resprayed. The Mercedes obviously did hit the Fiat.
“Whether that was an accident by the driver driving too fast into the tunnel or whether the Fiat Uno was in the wrong lane, I can’t take it beyond that.” Former BBC royal correspondent Michael Cole said the interview with Van Thanh should be passed to British and French authorities as part of a formal request to reopen the Diana inquest.
He added: “As a matter of urgency, this information should be conveyed to an officer of the court.”