Diana crash photos cost paparazzi €1

PARIS - A French court has ordered three photographers to pay €1 damages for taking pictures of Dodi al-Fayed and Diana, Princess of Wales, on the night of their fatal accident in 1997.

The ruling by the Paris Appeal Court is - depending on interpretation - a vindication, or a slap in the face, for Dodi's father, Mohammed al-Fayed, who forced the case to be re-opened last year.

The three press photographers - Jacques Langevin, Fabrice Chassery and Christian Martinez - will have to pay the multi-millionaire Fayed €1 between them for taking pictures of the couple inside their car before and after the accident in Paris on August 31, 1997.

They must also pay up to €6000 to cover the cost of publishing the court ruling in three French newspapers.

The ruling is a vindication of Fayed's refusal to accept two earlier French court rulings - in 2003 and 2004 - that the photographers were merely doing their job (mostly at the commission of British popular newspapers). Following an appeal by Fayed, the Supreme Court overturned these rulings last year and ordered the case to be reheard. The Court of Appeal found the photographers guilty of infringing French privacy laws.

- INDEPENDENT