Three women who worked at Harrods accuse Mohamed Al-Fayed’s brother, Salah Fayed, of raping them when the two men owned the London department store, in an interview with the BBC on Thursday. According to these testimonies, the rapes occurred in London, the south of France and Monaco between 1989 and 1997. Salah Fayed died in 2010 while Mohamed Al-Fayed died in 2023. The three women, including one, Helen, testifies openly, also claiming to have been raped by Mohamed Al-Fayed. Helen says she was 23 and had been working at Harrods for two years when the Egyptian businessman raped her in a Dubai hotel room in 1989. She was then transferred as personal assistant to her brother Salah , whom she accuses of having drugged her before raping her. She resigned shortly after. “He (Mohamed Al Fayed) shared me with his brother”she said.
The second woman to testify claims to have been raped during a trip to Monaco by Salah, who died of pancreatic cancer in 2010. The third accuses her of rape in 1997 in London, then in Monaco, when she had 19 years old and worked at Harrods. Contacted by AFP, the current management of Harrods affirms that it “supports the courage of these women” to testify and encourages them to get closer to her in order to “request compensation” and get support. “We also hope that they will consider all appropriate avenues in their quest for justice, whether that involves Harrods, the police or the Fayed family.”adds the group.
More than 420 victims and witnesses
Tuesday, the New York Times reported the testimony of another victim who claims that Mohamed Al-Fayed’s other brother, Ali, 80, knew about the “traffic” of women made by his elder. Testimonies against Mohamed Al-Fayed have multiplied since the broadcast, in September, of a BBC documentary reporting multiple accusations of rape and sexual assault allegedly committed by the Egyptian businessman, who died in August 2023 at the age of 94.
The group «Justice for Harrods Survivors» said it had been contacted by more than 420 people, victims but also witnesses, about facts mainly concerning the department store as well as the Fulham football club, the Ritz hotel in Paris and other places. In early November, the Metropolitan Police said it was examining how 21 testimonies “filed before the death of Mohamed Al-Fayed” had been processed by him in order to determine “whether additional investigative measures are possible or whether there are things we could have done better”.
