London: Mohammed Al-Fayed, the father of
Dodi Al-Fayed who died in a Paris car crash alongside Princess
Diana more than 12 years back, has admitted that he burned the
royal warrants of the iconic department store Harrods which he
owned for 25 years.
In a letter to `The Sunday Telegraph`, the 77-year-old
Egyptian tycoon, who sold Harrods to Qatar`s Royal Family for
1.5 billion pounds, has claimed the warrants had put a "curse"
on the shop. "I ordered their removal. Later, I`d them burned.
They`re a curse and business tripled following their removal."
The royal warrants are a mark of recognition to those
who supply goods or services to the British Royal Family.
The warrants -- from the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh,
the late Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, and the Prince of
Wales -- were taken down in 2000. They were on display since
the late Queen Elizabeth first gave her approval in 1938.
Al-Fayed has accused Queen`s husband Prince Philip of
masterminding the deaths of his son and Diana, the Princess of
Wales, in the car crash in 1997.
In his letter, Al-Fayed has also called for the
store`s new owners, who enjoy close links to the British Royal
Family, to retain the two memorials he erected to the memory
of his son and the late Princess of Wales.
"Unless and until this country gives the Princess the
thanks and devotion she deserves in the form of fitting public
memorial, this statue, Innocent Victims, should remain to
remind the world of what was lost when two young people, on
the brink of happiness together, were killed.
"It is the only memorial to the Princess in the
country, if one discounts the misconceived municipal water
works in Hyde Park that every year causes casualties among the
children who slip over when paddling in it," he wrote.
However, a spokesman for Harrods said that no decision
about the future of the two memorials had been made.
PTI
