Chauffeur behind Princess Di's death was 'framed as a drunk driver'

London, May 20 (ANI): Author of an explosive new book has called for a fresh inquest into the death of Princess Diana and her lover Dodi Fayed, claiming that the man branded as the drunk driver responsible for the accident was actually sober.

Investigative journalist and author John Morgan slammed the official London inquest into how the Princess died following the crash in the Alma Tunnel in Paris in 1997.

He insisted last year's hearing was tainted by errors, omissions and suppressions following a widespread cover-up by the French authorities.

Morgan has claimed to have uncovered crucial evidence that the inquest jury never heard, including that from the two French doctors who carried out the post-mortem on chauffeur Henri Paul - the man branded as the drunk driver behind the deaths of both the Princess and her lover Dodi Fayed.

"They blamed a dead, defenceless, innocent driver," the Daily Express quoted Morgan as saying at the official launch of his book, the third in a series.

The Australian author makes his claims in his book, 'Diana Inquest: The French Cover-up', published in Brisbane, Austrialia.

Morgan points to documentary evidence of a second body and a plethora of inconsistencies in conflicting blood samples, errors in body identification, witnesses never heard and glaring inaccuracies of evidence.

His new book, which is almost 700 pages long, documents how blood samples used to prove Paul was three times over the legal alcohol-driving limit came from another body.

Morgan said that he has uncovered medical records, which prove Paul was not drunk behind the wheel.

"There is a mass of evidence that Henri Paul was not drunk, from CCTV footage of him talking to Diana inside the hotel and from eyewitnesses who said he was definitely not drunk," said Morgan.

"He is seen going up and down stairs, walking normally and even at one point bending down to tie his shoelace without any difficulty. So how does a man go from being sober in the Ritz Hotel to five minutes later being a totally drunk driver?

"DNA samples taken from Henri Paul during the autopsy, which were definitely from him, have never been tested for elevated alcohol levels.

"And the doctor who took them, Dr Gilbert Pepin is quoted as saying it would take a request from the Queen of England to the French president to get them," he added. (ANI)