Mr Al Fayed is looking to the Scottish courts

The Harrods owner's request was turned down earlier this year by Scotland's Lord Advocate, Colin Boyd QC.

Mr Al Fayed is now seeking a judicial review of that decision.

The tycoon believes his ownership of Balnagown Castle in Easter Ross should give him access to the Scottish legal system.

Five days have been set aside for the hearing at the Court of Session in Edinburgh before Lord Drummond Young, who is likely to issue a written judgment later.

Mr Fayed argues that under the European Convention on Human Rights he is entitled as next-of-kin to be properly informed of the cause of his son's death because there are grounds for supposing that his death was unlawful.

His lawyer Richard Keen QC told the court that they had numerous arguments to cast doubt on the French police' s verdict that Dodi and Diana's deaths in 1997 were an accident.

I can't rest as a father who has lost his son and this is normal practice for any father who loses his children under very, very vicious circumstances Mohamed Al Fayed

None of the 10 traffic cameras on the route from the Ritz Hotel to Dodi's flat in Paris was working at the time of the crash, he said, and yet a motorist was fined for speeding 15 minutes earlier based on video evidence on a speed camera near where the couple's Mercedes crashed.

Earlier on Monday, Mr Al Fayed told BBC Radio Scotland: "Still I believe I will get justice here in Scotland.

"My first home is here, I have lived here for 35 years and all the time you pray to God that things can be done fairly with all the means that I can have."

Asked if he would continue to fight if he loses the case in Scotland, Mr Al Fayed said: "I am just hoping today I have a very good hearing which makes me more confident to fight this case till the end.

"I can't rest as a father who has lost his son and this is normal practice for any father who loses his children under very, very vicious circumstances."

'For ordinary people'

Later, when he arrived at the court, Mr Al Fayed said: "What I am doing I am doing for the nation and for the ordinary people."

He said as a resident of Scotland he could look to the Scottish courts to secure his rights.

When Mr Boyd rejected the claim earlier this year, he said the crash was outside Scottish jurisdiction because it happened in Paris.

There have been no inquests in the UK into the death of Dodi and Diana after six years, and Mr Al Fayed has always maintained there has been a conspiracy or cover-up to conceal security services involvement in his son's death.

He has not enjoyed legal success in England or France in his efforts to secure a public inquiry.

Security services accused

The French magistrates investigating the deaths said in a report that driver Henri Paul was to blame for the 1997 crash because he was drunk and using anti-depressants.

But Mr Al Fayed argues the deaths of Diana and Dodi were caused by the British security services because they planned to marry.

He has also exhausted every legal avenue in his efforts to pursue the photographers who drove after the Mercedes carrying Dodi and the princess.