In this Saturday, Sept. 6, 1997, file photo, mourners view the large collection of flowers that have been left at the gates of Kensington Palace, London. London's police force says Tuesday Dec. 17, 2013, there is "no credible evidence" that British special forces were involved in the deaths of Princess Diana and her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed and it will not reopen the investigation.LONDON - London's police force said Tuesday there is "no credible evidence" that British special forces were involved in the deaths of Princess Diana and her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed and it will not reopen the investigation.
Scotland Yard has been looking into claims that the SAS had played a role. It conducted a "scoping exercise" to assess the credibility of the information and decided whether it warranted reopening the criminal investigation, and police said they were given unprecedented access to British special forces records.
"Every reasonable line of inquiry was objectively pursued in order to fully evaluate any potential evidence," police said in a statement Tuesday. "There is no credible evidence to support a theory that such claims had any basis in fact."
The claims, widely reported in the British media, were made by an ex-SAS member identified only as Soldier N.
Diana, Dodi and their driver, Henri Paul, died in a car accident in Paris on August 31, 1997.
A jury for the inquest into the deaths of Diana and Dodi Fayed returned a verdict in April 2008 saying that "the people's princess" and her boyfriend were unlawfully killed, saying the car's driver and paparazzi share blame for the deaths.
Simon McKay, a lawyer for Fayed's father, Mohamed al Fayed, said his client was disappointed by the decision not to reopen the criminal investigation.
Mohamed al Fayed had accused Prince Philip, the queen's husband, of directing a complicated conspiracy that resulted in the couple's car slamming into a concrete pier at high speed in an underpass in Paris.