DIANA'S SECRET WEDDING PLAN: Jeweller tells police of chosen £130,000 engagement
[url="http://www.royalarchive.com/images/M_images/pdf_button.png"]http://www.royalarchive.com/images/M_images/pdf_button.png[/url]
[url="http://www.royalarchive.com/images/M_images/printButton.png"]http://www.royalarchive.com/images/M_images/printButton.png [/url]
[url="http://www.royalarchive.com/images/M_images/emailButton.png"]http://www.royalarchive.com/images/M_images/emailButton.png [/url]Written by Martin Evans, Daily Express Tuesday, 04 October 2005
http://www.royalarchive.com/images/stories/Images_for_articles/PrincessDiana/ring.jpgJeweller tells police she had chosen a £130,000 engagement ring - and Dodi was to hand it to her on the night they died
PRINCESS Diana and her Dodi Al Fayed were planning to announce their engagement when they were killed, the inquiry into her death has been told.
The couple were on their way to Dodi's Paris apartment, where he planned to propose to Diana with a £130,000 ring, when tragedy struck.
A jeweller has told police that the ring had been chosen by the Princess herself, and the Daily Express can reveal that the couple were expected to announce wedding plans to the world the following day. The disclosure was made last Wednesday by Monte Carlo based jeweller Alberto Repossi to a Scotland Yard team of detectives headed by former top policeman Lord Stevens.
In a sworn statement which lays bare for the first time the true nature of the relationship between Diana and Dodi, Mr Repossi confirmed to detectives that he sold the engagement ring weeks before the Paris car crash.
Mr Repossi, who has exclusive boutiques in Monaco and Paris, travelled to London to be interviewed by senior officers from Lord Stevens' inquiry team.
Mr Repossi told them that he secretly met Diana and Dodi in the South of France in August 1997 after the spotted a £130,000 ring from his Say Yes collection in the window of his Monte Carlo shop.
During a cloak-and-dagger operation to deter paparazzi pursuit, Mr Repossi was called to a clandestine redezvous where Diana was measured for the emerald and diamond ring.
Arrangements were then made for her lover to collect it a week later at the Paris branch of the jewellers - close to his father Mohamed Al Fayed's Ritz Hotel.
But before Dodi was able to present his bride-to-be with the ring and seal their love, the couple were both dead.
Evidence
Mr Repossi, who has video and documentary evidence to back up his story and which has been seen by this newspaper, has given a sworn statement to officers that the ring in question was indeed bought to signify their engagement.
In a statement he said: "In order to avoid any distortion of the facts. I am enclosing herewith a copy of my consignment book, which clearly indicates the jewel in question was, at this early date, annoted by me as being an engagement ring."
He added:" The docket speaks for itself. It was an engagement ring, Diana chose it herself and Dodi picked it up from my shop in paris the night before they died. I met them both in St Tropez and Diana picked the ring herself."
This fresh evidence from Mr Repossi also ties in with comments made by Diana in August 1997 that she was planning to make an announcement which would give everyone a "big surprise".
Weeks before her death, while holidaying with Dodi, she told a group of journalists: "You are going to get a big surprise with the next thing I do."
Investigators are now examining the likelihood that the announcement was to be her engagement to Dodi.
The latest development also lends more weight ot the growing belief that Diana was pregnant with Dodi's child when the couple were killed. Conclusive evidence to confirm the pregnancy was destroyed when Diana's body was embalmed within hours of her death.
Ever since the fatal crash in Paris' Alma tunnel in the early hours of August 31, 1997, speculation has been mounting that it was not an accident but a deliberate act of murder carried out by the British secret service.
News that the lovers were to become engaged is certain to fuel those theories still furthur.
Harrods tycoon Mohamed Al Fayed has always insisted that the couple were killed because the Royal Family did not want the mother of the future King of England marrying an Egyptian born Muslim. That theory received overwhelming backing from Daily Express readers in a recent telephone poll, with 94 per cent convinced her death was not an accident. Mr Al Fayed has vowed to continue his own investigations until he is satisfied that the truth about their deaths has been revealed.
Mr Repossi, 54, first became aware of his extra-special clients when a director of the Ritz Hotel in Paris contacted him in August 1997 to say that Diana and Dodi were interested in a ring they had seen in his Monte Carlo store.
He arranged to meet the couple a few days later to show them the jewel and take measurements for fitting.
Mr Repossi said there was no doubt in his mind that the ring was being bought to celebrate the couple's engagement.
On August 30, 1997, Dodi visited the Repossi boutique on the Place Vendome in Paris in order to collect the ring.
Rest of the story at link.
http://www.royalarchive.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1350&Itemid=2
