A MAN who has always maintained that he was the first person on the scene of the crash in Paris that killed Princess Diana has been arrested.
He was charged with robbing cash machines.- after fleeing custody and a three-year prison sentence for stealing two Picassos.
Abdelatif Redjil, 54, who told authorities he had comforted Diana in her dying moments, is alleged to have stolen E33,000 ($46,088) from a cash machine in a Paris suburb.
He had been on the run since escaping after receiving a jail term in September for stealing Picasso paintings worth $70 million.
The works were taken in a high-profile robbery in 2007 from the home of Diana Widmaier-Picasso, the artist’s’ granddaughter.
Redjil testified in the 2007 High Court inquiry in London that he had arrived on the scene of the crash in the Alma Tunnel and found Diana in the back of the crashed Mercedes, driven by Henri Paul, an employee of the Ritz hotel.
“I tried to reassure her, telling her in English, ‘Don’t worry’,” he told the inquiry. “She opened her eyes, but she didn’t answer me. She simply continued moving her hand. I think she was unconscious.”
The British inquest was told Redjil and a friend, Belkacem Bouzid, were near the tunnel on the night of the crash in 1997 and ran into it when they heard the noise.
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