Paris - Two years after Princess Diana's death in a Paris car crash, two investigating magistrates have to make a final decision on whether or not a trial should take place.
Ten days ago, Paris court authorities decided there was no case to answer for nine photographers and a motorcycle messenger who pursued Princess Diana's car at the time of its fatal crash.
The prosecutor's office announced it did not have enough evidence to justify putting any of them on trial. The 10 faced prosecution for involuntary manslaughter and failing to help the victims of the crash in the early hours of August 31 1997.
But the matter is not yet over. A final decision on whether or not to send them to trial rests with two investigating magistrates, Herve Stephan and Marie-Christine Devidal, whose ruling will come in early September.
Princess Diana, her companion Dodi Fayed and their driver Henri Paul died when their Mercedes limousine, pursued by a posse of paparazzi on motorcycles, crashed into a pillar in a tunnel beside the Pont de l'Alma in Paris.
Diana's British bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones, was seriously injured but survived.
Tests showed that Henri Paul was three times over the drinking limit for driving, with 1,75 to 1,8 grams of alcohol per litre of blood.
The prosecutor's office said the "loss of control by the driver of the vehicle appeared to be the determining cause of the accident", exacerbated by Paul's alcohol intake and the car's excessive speed while entering the tunnel.
If the two magistrates find there is no case to answer, Dodi's father Mohammed Al Fayed, the millionaire Egyptian owner of Harrods department store in London and the Ritz Hotel in Paris, will take the case to the Paris Appeals Court.
If one or more of the 10 are sent to trial, the facts discovered in the two-year investigation will be aired in the Paris court of summary justice, where the accused would face only low sentences.
Mohammed Al Fayed has maintained that there was a conspiracy behind Diana and Dodi's death, aimed at preventing their marriage. Despite investigations by former high-ranking police officers, hired by Al Fayed, no elements have shown this to be the case.
A shadow still remains over the cause of the crash in the shape of a mysterious white Fiat Uno which may have nicked the princess's Mercedes just before the accident, but which has never been traced despite a police search among 40 000 similar vehicles registered in France.
Traces of paint were found on the wing of the Mercedes and a wall of the underpass, giving rise to theories that the two cars might have grazed each other. - Sapa-AFP