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Photographers declared manslaughter suspects
All 7 freed; 1 reportedly checked Diana's pulse
September 2, 1997
Web posted at: 9:35 p.m. EDT (0135 GMT)Latest developments:
- Pair barred from journalism
- 'He wanted to see if she was ... alive'
- Lawyer: 'Theater justice'
- 'Obvious ... they had struck gold'
- In defense of photographers
- Related stories and sites
PARIS (CNN) -- Six photographers and a motorcyclist were freed Tuesday after a judge declared them manslaughter suspects in the car crash death of Princess Diana. Two photographers were temporarily barred from journalism, including one who reportedly reached into the wreckage and took the dying princess' pulse.
CNN's Walter Rodgers reports
2 min., 24 sec. VXtreme streaming video
One by one, the seven appeared in handcuffs before Judge Herve Stephan, who placed them all under formal investigation -- one step short of being charged -- for involuntary homicide, the French equivalent of manslaughter.
It does not mean they will necessarily be formally charged with any crimes.
The seven also will be investigated for possibly violating the French "Good Samaritan" law, which requires onlookers to assist victims of road accidents.
The inquiries could take months. Both violations can be punished by up to five years in prison and fines of almost $100,000.
The early Sunday morning crash that killed Diana also resulted in the death of her millionaire boyfriend Dodi Fayed and Henri Paul, the driver of the car.
The six photographers and cyclist were arrested at the crash scene following reports that paparazzi may have contributed to the wreck by chasing the princess' car, and that they blocked initial rescue efforts.
Fresh disclosures, however, pointed anew at a combination of deadly factors in the accident, including Paul's apparently drunken condition. The car was also reportedly traveling at a high speed when it crashed. Paul was a Fayed employee.
Pair barred from journalism
Most of the suspects, whose lawyers say they are innocent, looked haggard as they entered the Paris court.
Five of the seven -- Nicolas Arsov of the Sipa agency, Jacques Langevin of the Sygma agency, free-lancer Laszlo Veres, motorcyclist Stephane Darmon of the Gamma agency and Serge Arnal of the Stills agency -- were freed on their own recognizance.
The other two -- Romuald Rat of Gamma and Christian Martinez of the Angeli agency -- were released on $16,000 bail and forbidden to work as journalists while the case is pending.
Prosecutors had formally asked the judge to jail Rat and Martinez, indicating they felt evidence against them was most serious. But the judge did not follow their recommendation.
Police accuse Rat of obstructing the work of the first officers on the scene. Rat's lawyer, Philippe Benamou, argued that his client merely checked Diana's pulse when he was taking pictures of the wreckage.
'He wanted to see if she was ... alive'
"He took Diana's pulse. He wanted to see if she was dead or alive," the lawyer said.
"He saw that she was alive, and police were arriving at the same time. It happened so quickly."
The defense attorney appeared to be trying to show that his client was not obstructing the rescue, and indeed was trying to aid Diana under France's Good Samaritan law.
The suspects, slammed in the press as unscrupulous paparazzi ready to do anything for a lurid picture, all slipped out of the court without talking to journalists.
Many Paris photographers, out of a sense of solidarity, refused to go to the courthouse to take pictures of their colleagues leaving the hearings.
The hearings Tuesday at Paris' main criminal court were closed to the public. The results of the proceedings were reported by the suspects' lawyers.
Lawyer: 'Theater justice'
Lawyers said their clients, exhausted after 48 hours of police questioning, were indignant at being held. Unaware of a worldwide furor blaming them for hounding the princess to her death, they believed they had done nothing wrong.
William Bourdon, attorney for photographer Arsov, said they were being turned into "sacrificial lambs."
"This is theater justice, aimed at satisfying the expectations of the public," Bourdon said. "I will require the judge as soon as possible to consider there are no offenses possible ... and I will ask cancellation of the suit."
But an attorney for Fayed's father, Mohammed Al Fayed, said there was "causality" -- meaning a cause and effect -- between the photographers' pursuit and the fatal crash, and Al Fayed was joining the case as a civil party to prove it.
Al Fayed lawyer George Kiejman made it clear his aim is to establish the fault of the photographers in the case.
'Obvious ... they had struck gold'
The circumstances of Diana's death have outraged people worldwide.
An American businessman who said he happened on the scene just after the crash called the photographers "disgusting."
"I mean (they were) all over the car," said Jack Firestone, of Hewlett Harbor, New York, "climbing all over the car as if they were mosquitoes ... clicking away like mad. ... It was obvious these paparazzi knew they had struck gold."
Some witnesses said photographers even pushed aside rescuers and policemen, saying they were ruining their pictures.
In defense of photographers
But two of the photographer's bosses defended their shooters.
Sygma director Hubert Henrotte said his photographer, Langevin, had nothing to do with the chase of Diana.
Langevin, noted for his pictures of the invasion of China's Tiananmen Square was a stringer for the Associated Press from 1978 to 1984. He arrived at the scene by chance, in his car, "a good seven minutes after" the accident, Henrotte said.
"He has nothing to do with the band of paparazzi," Henrotte said.
And Sipa owner Gokin Sipahioghu said his man, Arsov, followed a decoy car and only came on the wreck after a call alerting him to the tragedy.
"He saw the ambulance, so he looked and there were people making pictures. So he made the pictures without flash. Suddenly the police was very angry," said Sipahioghu, who insists Arsov only took pictures after the victims got help.
The photographers also got unexpected support from French actress Catherine Deneuve, who said they were only the "dogs of war" unleashed by unscrupulous press barons who should be barred from publishing paparazzi pictures.
"I think it's terrible that they should be put in custody like hostages one wants to shoot," she told the daily Liberation in an interview in which she complained about being stalked by photographers wherever she went.
Correspondents Walter Rodgers and Art Harris, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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