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Princess Diana ’s driver Henri Paul was given a clean bill of health for a pilot’s licence just 72 hours before the car crash that killed them and Dodi Fayed .

Henri’s aviation medical certificate – seen exclusively by the Sunday People – appears to nail repeated claims that he was an alcoholic whose drinking was partly to blame for the horrendous pile-up.

The hard-won certificate, which the flying fanatic had to pass every year, also seems to demolish the official French investigation report that he was suffering from depression.

The never-before-seen document has been made public by Henri’s oldest friend, Claude Garrec.

(Image: Johann Rauch/Sunday Mirror)

“If Henri was an alcoholic and depressive how was this signed by a doctor just three days before he died?” says Garrec.

And another of Henri’s friends tracked down by the Sunday People, Paris bar owner Josy Duclos, who saw him at 8.45pm on the night of the crash, says she never saw him drunk.

Garrec, who believes his pal is the victim of a conspiracy to kill Diana, says: “There have been no answers even 20 years on.

“And one particularly strong memory for me was the message on a wreath at his funeral, ‘We are not fooled’.”

Henri, 41, deputy head of security at the Ritz hotel in Paris owned by Dodi’s dad Mohamed, was a pilot for 20 years and had to pass a stringent medical every year, including blood and liver tests.

Called a Certificate of Physical and Mental Aptitude and issued by the French equivalent of the Civil Aviation Authority, it was signed by a registered doctor.

Garrec was allowed by Henri’s family to keep personal items and papers after his friend’s death, including the certificate, his pilot’s radio and a key ring.

(Image: Johann Rauch/Sunday Mirror)

The Frenchman says: “I flew with Henri in his plane dozens of times.

“Sometimes my wife and my daughter were with us, including at night and in foggy weather.

“Do you really believe that if I had any doubt about Henri’s mental health, or his lucidity, I would taken that risk? Never!

“When we know how difficult it is to obtain this licence and to see it renewed there again it is totally incompatible with how people describe him.

(Image: Johann Rauch/Sunday Mirror) (Image: Johann Rauch/Sunday Mirror)

“Not only was he a pilot since 18, but he also had a special licence to fly at night which is not something for everyone, believe me.”

On the morning of fatal crash in a Paris road tunnel on August 31 1997, Garrec and Paul went for their customary game of tennis. They ran out of time and the match ended at one set all.

Garrec, a printer who had known Henri since their schooldays, said: “I won a set, he won one, we left, and, again, I can assure you he was not depressed and even less alcoholic.

"There is an accident, what caused it? Alcohol and medication? I do not believe… there is no doubt about that.

(Image: PA) (Image: PA)

“I was there at the first search of his apartment after Henri’s death, and of course there were a few bottles of alcohol.

“A few bottles of aperitifs in quite normal quantities, on the other hand there were more than 240 cans of Coca-Cola. Transforming a few ­bottles of ­aperitifs into an alcoholic’s lair, some pills against stress for a drug addict’s stock – it is not complicated, it’s very easy to do.

“And where does all the carbon monoxide that was found in such a quantity in his blood come from?”

(Image: Reuters) (Image: AFP) (Image: AFP)

A British inquest in 2008 ruled that Diana, 36, and Dodi, 42, were unlawfully killed due to gross negligence by Henri. He had been drinking and was at the wheel of the hotel’s Mercedes when it hit a pillar in the Alma road tunnel at nearly 70mph as the car was chased by Press photographers.

A British police investigation concluded Henri was twice the then-UK drink-drive limit and his carbon monoxide level was normal for a smoker living in an urban area like Paris.

But Josy Duclos, who owns the bar La Champmeslé 50 yards from Henri’s home at 33 rue des Petits Champs, is convinced her regular customer was innocent and was set up.

(Image: Johann Rauch/Sunday Mirror)

She told the Sunday People: “I knew Henri Paul since the beginning of the 90s.

“I can tell you that Henri Paul was a wonderful man – always smiling.

“For all who knew him he was exactly the reverse of how he was described after the accident.

“I have never believed all that has been told about this thesis of the accident. Henri used to park his Austin Mini, right there in front of the bar, and I remember that he did not really like to drive, and that he preferred to pilot his plane”

“Do you really believe that a guy who is flying an aeroplane, whose pilot licence is renewed just a few days before his death, may be the alcoholic and the drug addict described throughout these years?

“Of course he would come and have a drink from time to time, but like everybody else drinks from time to time, he never went away drunk.

“I have a bar, I know what a drunk looks like. And again, Henri Paul was not one of those.”

According to the French investigation, Henri’s doctor said she had prescribed him the anti-depressant drug Prozac and also a drug for alcoholism.

(Image: Johann Rauch/Sunday Mirror)

But Josy said: “The only time I saw him crying was when he confided to me that he had just learned that his mother was suffering from cancer.

“I do not know if one day we’ll know what happened, but I think surely it’s time to re-establish the truth about Henri Paul. He has taken the fall for something or somebody else.

“It was easy to accuse the driver to be responsible. In any case, I do not believe in the theory of the accident that he was drunk and under the influence of drugs.

“I have seen him go to his job so many times and he has never taken a beer.

“And he never went back drunk from the Ritz. I close my bar sometimes at 4 or 5 am.”

Both Josy and Garrec described Henri as a cultured violin and piano-player who was passionate about reading.

Garrec, still haunted by the loss of his friend, added: “I have a deep sense of injustice and especially unanswered questions.”