Billionaire Mohamed al-Fayed, whose son died with Princess Diana, dead at 94
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London: Mohamed al-Fayed, the self-made Egyptian billionaire, whose son Dodi al-Fayed was killed in a car crash alongside Diana, Princess of Wales, has passed away aged 94.
Al-Fayed died on Wednesday, his family said, a day before the 26th anniversary of Dodi and Diana's death.
The former Harrods boss was born in the Egyptian city of Alexandria and began his career selling fizzy drinks and then working as a sewing-machine salesman. He built a business empire in real estate, shipping and construction in the Middle East before moving to the UK in the 1970s.
Although al-Fayed was owner of establishment symbols such as Harrods, Fulham and the Ritz hotel in Paris, he was never granted passport for UK.
He had a falling-out with the British government due to its refusal to grant him citizenship of the country he had called home for many decades. He frequently hinted at the possibility of relocating to France, where he had been honoured with the Legion of Honour, the nation's most prestigious civilian accolade.
Al-Fayed spent his later years trying to prove that his son Dodi and princess Diana were murdered when their car crashed in a road tunnel in Paris in 1997.
After travelling to Paris, the couple were killed when their Mercedes, driven at high speed by a chauffeur who had been drinking whisky and was trying to evade the paparazzi on motorbikes, crashed into a concrete pillar in the Pont de l'Alma tunnel, reports Reuters.
Al-Fayed spent millions on legal battles to ensure there was an inquest. A decade after the crash, he accused everyone from the royal family, prime minister Blair, Diana's sister Sarah, the French embalmers of Diana's body, and the Paris ambulance drivers of being implicated, reports Reuters.
But the jury said the couple were unlawfully killed by their chauffeur's driving. Al-Fayed said he accepted the verdict and gave up legal attempts to show they were murdered.
He also claimed that Diana was bearing Dodi's child and accused Prince Philip, the queen's husband, of ordering Britain's security services to kill her to stop her marrying a Muslim and having his baby, as reported by Reuters.
