Mohamed Al-Fayed, in November 2008.
AFP
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, in the south of France and in Monaco between 1989 and 1997.
Salah Fayed died in 2010 while Mohamed Al-Fayed died in 2023.
The three women, one of whom, Helen, testifies openly, also claim 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.
“He shared me with his brother”
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 approach it in order to “request compensation” and obtain support.
Groupe «Justice for Harrods Survivors»
“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 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 Justice for Harrods Survivors group said it had been contacted by more than 420 people, victims as well as 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 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.”
(afp)
