Salah Al-Fayed, brother of Egyptian businessman Mohamed Al-Fayed, is in turn accused of rape and sexual assault by former employees of the prestigious London store Harrods.
A business that continues to grow. While dozens of women accuse Mohamed Al-Fayed of sexual violence, it is now the brother of the Egyptian businessman, Salah, who is at the center of new accusations.
Speaking to the BBC, three women claim to be victims of the former owner of the London department store Harrods, but also of his brother who worked in the management of the company.
Mohamed Al-Fayed died in 2023 at the age of 94, before the documentary was broadcast in 2024 Al-Fayed: a predator at Harrods which sparked a wave of accusations against him. His brother Salah died in 2010.
Rapes in Dubai, London and Monaco
The three women who testified to the BBC are former employees of Harrods. One of them, Helen, speaks openly. She said 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.
Harrods salutes the “courage” of the victims
Contacted by AFP, the current management of Harrods affirms that it “supports the courage of these women” to testify and encourages them to approach it in order to “request compensation” and obtain 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,” the group added.
On Tuesday, the New York Times reported the testimony of another victim who claims that Mohamed Al-Fayed’s other brother, Ali, 80, was aware of the “trafficking” of women carried out by his elder.
Testimonies against Mohamed Al-Fayed have multiplied since the broadcast, in September, of the BBC documentary reporting multiple accusations of rape and sexual assault allegedly committed by the Egyptian businessman.
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.
At the beginning of November, the Metropolitan Police indicated that it was examining the manner in which 21 testimonies “given before the death of Mohamed Al-Fayed” had been handled by it in order to determine “whether additional investigative measures are possible or appropriate. There are things we could have done better.”
