The timing is odd, some might say unpleasant. On the third anniversary of their deaths, Mr Mohamed al-Fayed will today launch a lawsuit against the US government to obtain "secret" files which he says will reveal vital information about the deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales and his son, Dodi Fayed.
Three years after the Paris crash, Mr al-Fayed remains convinced that MI6, the British foreign intelligence service, murdered his son and the princess, spurred on by a racist British royal family that could not countenance a "curly-haired Egyptian" as an in-law.
At a Washington press conference yesterday, Mr al-Fayed appeared before reporters on a video-screen - it was "too painful" to speak in person, he said.
In his pre-recorded message he confirmed that he was suing several US government departments, including the Justice Department, to compel them to release all documents relevant to the crash.
He said US federal agencies had refused to reveal documents about the Paris crash "at the request of the British Secret Service, who cannot afford to let the truth be known".
"MI6 is controlled by the establishment of the United Kingdom. They answer ultimately to the royal household, which would never have accepted my son, a naturally tanned, curly-haired Egyptian, being married to the mother of the future King of England," he claimed.
In an emotional appeal to the American people, he asked for their support to "obtain justice". "Your efforts can help the truth be revealed and that is a quest we all share no matter where we are from."
At the press conference, Mr al-Fayed's director of security, Mr John Macnamara, read out a statement from the Harrods owner in which he vowed he would never rest until the truth was discovered.
French investigators had issued statements that the driver of the car in which Diana and Dodi died, Henri Paul, was drunk. The world was told that "a drunk" caused the crash, but Mr al-Fayed said the reality was more sinister.
"It was murder," he said. He said he had forensic proof that the blood sample relied upon by the French authorities to prove Henri Paul was drunk contained 21 per cent carbon monoxide.
"This fact seriously calls into question whether the blood was his, for Henri Paul died instantaneously upon impact and could not have breathed in the noxious fumes," he added.
Mr al-Fayed also claimed that US intelligence agencies, including the CIA and National Security Agency, spied on the princess, monitored her conversations and passed the information to MI6.
AFP adds: The CIA has rejected as "totally unfounded" Mr al-Fayed's suggestions that it spied on Dodi al-Fayed and Diana, had knowledge of a plot to murder them or had anything to do with their deaths.