A decade after Princess Diana and her lover Dodi al-Fayed were killed in a car crash, an inquest into their deaths opened Tuesday in London, as allegations that they were “murdered” continue to emerge.

At the High Court in London, presiding coroner Lord Justice Scott Baker, said one of the purposes of this inquest is to “allay speculation and rumor” and warned the jurors they will be in the spotlight “as almost no jury has been before.”

“This is a subject upon which most members if the British public and many overseas appear to have a view, often based on no evidence at all or based on only part of the picture,” Baker said.

“Much has been written or broadcast, often showing a disregard for the facts, but your decision, when you have heard all the evidence, is the view that matters.”

Baker outlined that the jury of six women and five men has to pass judgment on what happened in that “tragic August night without being influenced by external factors.

He also said the jury will have the hard task of clearing a question that has been puzzling many over the past ten years: how they died. “Because of the unique nature of this case we shall explore the question a great deal more widely than would ordinarily be the case,” the coroner said

Diana, her lover Dodi al-Fayed and their driver Henri Paul died after the car they were in smashed at high speed into a pillar of the Pont d'Alma tunnel on August 31, 1997. The only survivor of the tragic accident was the couple’s bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones.

Dodi's father, Mohammed al-Fayed, once again lashed out at the British intelligence and royal family for allegedly standing behind the “murder” of Diana and his son.

“I'm certain of what happened, I know they have been murdered,” al-Fayed told journalists outside the High Court. “I'm hoping to God to find the murderer or the gangster that took the life of two innocent people. I will not rest until that's done.”

The Egyptian businessman’s spokesman, Michael Cole, said this inquest is the “last best chance to get at the plain and untarnished truth.” He also said that Queen Elizabeth II should be heard as a witness, a call previously made by al-Fayed’s legal team.

“At stages in her life the only person Diana could talk to in confidence in the royal family was the queen. She has unrivalled knowledge of the princess's state of mind,” Cole said.

The inquest is expected to last nearly half a year, during which up to 70 witnesses will be heard. Media speculated that Prince Philip and Diana’s former husband, Prince Charles, are going to be called to testify.

The coroner also motivated the decision to open the inquest after a decade.

“Why, you may ask, are we doing this 10 years after the event? Because memories fade, possible witnesses have died or disappeared and, uniquely to this case, quite literally millions of words have been written by a great many people expressing views on what did or did not happen,” Baker said.

After that opening statement, Baker presented photographs of the damaged Mercedes that struck a pillar at a speed of up to 104 kilometres-an-hour, which is nearly twice the speed limit on the road.

Baker told the jurors that they “will have to consider whether the precise nature of the impact could ever have been planned in advance or orchestrated in any confidence.”

He said the love affair between Diana and Dodi took shape during the summer of 1997, when the princess spent some time with her two sons in St. Tropez before joining Dodi on his yacht.

Mohammed al-Fayed claimed that Diana was pregnant with his son’s child and they were about to announce their engagement.

“Perhaps we shall never know what Diana had in mind … There is no doubt that Diana knew members of the al-Fayed family, but I am unaware of any suggestion that she and Dodi were close before the holiday,” Baker said.