Princess Diana's Secret Paris Crash Files Will Remain Locked Away and Kept Secret From the Public Until 2082: Source

Princess Diana's secret Paris crash files will remain locked away and kept secret from the public until 2082, OK! can reveal.

The 6,000-document dossier – said to stand at one meter in height – was completed by French police in 2007 after an 18-month investigation into the 1997 crash that killed Diana, 36, and her rumored lover, playboy Dodi Al Fayed, 42, and is stored in the basement archives of the Palais de Justice in Paris.

It is still being guarded at taxpayers' expense by armed officers and protected under an obscure rule.

The rule is article L. 213-2 of France's heritage code – which blocks public access to certain national archives for at least 75 years.

As the file was finalized in 2007, it is sealed until 2082 at the earliest, though sources have now told us "French authorities can extend the restriction indefinitely" – meaning the world may never discover its contents, which conspiracy theorists claim will prove Diana was assassinated as part of an establishment plot to stop her marrying Al Fayed.

The existence of the dossier was confirmed only after persistent requests to view it from OK!.

A spokesman for the Palais de Justice said in one refusal to open the files: "The investigation file is placed in the archives of the Paris Court of Appeal. In application of article L213-2 of the heritage code, it cannot be consulted before the expiration of a period of 75 years."

They added: "There is no online version of this archive."

A source who viewed part of the dossier in Paris suggested: "This secrecy stinks of a cover-up and conspiracy at the highest level, and is typical of French bureaucracy."

As the 30th anniversary of Diana's fatal crash in Paris's Pont de l'Alma tunnel approaches next year, several figures involved in the original proceedings say the decision to hide the file until the 2080s risks fueling suspicion rather than quieting it.

One legal source familiar with the archives said: "Sealing the documents until long after everyone involved is gone only deepens the sense that the full truth is being pushed out of reach – and many believe these files contain the definitive truth about the circumstances of Diana's death."

In 2007, French authorities claimed the entire dossier had been "lost" just weeks before the $17 million British inquest into Di's death opened – a probe which ultimately concluded the tragic princess and her rumored lover Al Fayed had been unlawfully killed due to grossly negligent driving by paparazzi and chauffeur Henri Paul, who also died in the smash.

Bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones narrowly survived but suffered catastrophic injuries.

Sources told us the French file on the horror, compiled by 30 police officers, includes thousands of pages of evidence – including around 200 witness statements, toxicology reports for Paul, previously unseen crash-scene photographs and interviews from one of the largest legal investigations in modern French history.

Lawyer Jean-Louis Pelletier, who represented paparazzo Fabrice Chassery, said in 2007, when he sought access to the dossier, he was told it had vanished.

He added: "When I went into the court to ask to see the files, I was told they weren't there. I know files go missing from time to time, but bearing in mind the size and importance of this particular one, it is extraordinary."

Partial photocopies were later provided to Lord Stevens, who headed the British investigation into Diana's death, but the original documents – the only version admissible in any future court proceedings – have remained sealed.

In 2006, French authorities also revealed that photographs showing Diana and Al Fayed at the crash scene had disappeared. A British lawyer said: "It is scarcely believable that such crucial evidence could be lost just weeks before the inquest."