"Every time I met Mohamed Al-Fayed, he tried to assault me," his former personal assistant Kristina Svensson told French police of her two years working at the Ritz. French authorities began investigating the late Egyptian businessman and his brother Salah last year amid allegations of a vast system of sex trafficking and abuse on French soil."
"In England they're ignoring the trafficking... They just want to make it about Al-Fayed and Harrods," said Rachael Louw, a former Al-Fayed employee. The French investigation, however, is handled by "a unit specialised in human trafficking," she told AFP. It is "a relief that our cases are actually being recognised as trafficking"."
"British police told AFP that 154 victims have so far come forward to say the former owner of Premier League club Fulham abused them. The alleged crimes of Mohamed Al-Fayed, who died in 2023 aged 94, came to light in a BBC investigation in September 2024, in which several young women who worked at his upmarket London department store Harrods accused him of rape and sexual assault."
Mohamed Al-Fayed, owner of Harrods, the Paris Ritz, and luxury yachts, is under investigation by French authorities for alleged sex trafficking and abuse spanning over 35 years. French lawyers compare his alleged crimes to those of Jeffrey Epstein. A BBC investigation in September 2024 prompted multiple women to come forward with accusations of rape and sexual assault at Harrods. British police report 154 victims have reported abuse. Frustrated with the London Metropolitan Police investigation's focus on Al-Fayed and Harrods rather than trafficking, some victims have pursued justice through French authorities, who are handling the case through a specialized human trafficking unit. Al-Fayed died in 2023 at age 94; his brother Salah, who died in 2010, is also accused.
#sexual-abuse-allegations #human-trafficking-investigation #mohamed-al-fayed #harrods-scandal #french-investigation
Read at The Local France
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