French police raid Ritz hotel in Mohamed Al Fayed sexual abuse investigation

Arrests made after three properties were searched in relation to inquiry into late businessman

French police have made arrests after raiding three properties, including the Ritz hotel in Paris, in relation to an investigation into sexual abuse and trafficking by Mohamed Al Fayed.

Several individuals were taken into custody for questioning last month and later released, according to the Paris public prosecutor’s office. Another property in Paris and one in Saint-Tropez, both with links to Fayed, were also searched in mid-October.

Several of Fayed’s alleged victims were also interviewed by officers from the organised crime division of the Paris prosecutor’s office.

It added that the searches were part of a preliminary investigation into “allegations of human trafficking committed by an organised group, aggravated pimping committed by an organised group, and rape”.

In an email sent to survivors of Fayed’s alleged abuse earlier today, the Metropolitan police said its officers were present during the searches on 13 and 14 October, in a coordinated operation with French investigators.

The Paris prosecutor’s office said: “Searches and evidence-gathering operations were carried out in mid-October 2026, notably within the Hotel Ritz in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, as well as at the Villa Sainte-Thérèse in Saint-Tropez, a former property of Mohamed Al Fayed, and at the Villa Windsor in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, in the presence of British investigators.”

The investigation is ongoing and digital material seized during the searches is being analysed, it added.

One of the properties that was raided was Castel Sainte-Thérèse in Saint-Tropez is one of the most exclusive villas on the French Riviera, and where Diana, Princess of Wales, stayed with her sons in the summer of 1997, at the start of her relationship with Fayed’s son, Dodi.

The other was Villa Windsor, a former holiday home of the Fayed family. The property in western Paris was previously the family home of Charles de Gaulle, before he was president of France, and King Edward VIII, after his abdication, and his wife, Wallis Simpson.

A Met spokesperson confirmed its officers travelled to France last month and were present during the operation.

Campaign groups representing Fayed’s alleged victims called on the Met police to conduct its own searches of the late billionaire’s properties.

Co-chairs of Justice for Fayed and Harrods Survivors, Jen Mills and Lindsay Mason, said: “We want to see the same thoroughness applied to every property where survivors say they were taken or abused, including here in Britain. The searches in Paris and Saint-Tropez must be the beginning, not the end.”

A spokesperson for No One Above, a collective of survivors of Fayed’s alleged abuse, said: “The French authorities have put this in the hands of their specialist trafficking unit and their organised crime prosecutors, and are investigating it as trafficking by an organised gang.

“The evidence in this case was never confined to Harrods. For two years, the Met has avoided treating it as what France recognised from the outset: organised trafficking by a network. The National Crime Agency should now take over the investigation.”

Pelham Spong, who says she was trafficked in Paris on Fayed’s orders in 2008 before being sent to London to be sexually assaulted by him, said she was overjoyed by the French police raids. “Survivors deserve actions, not words,” she added.

Last November, she told French investigators from the Central Office for the Repression of Human Trafficking that Fayed, who owned the Ritz hotel in Paris, had forcibly kissed her and offered her a salary of €65,000 a year if she slept with him.

Survivors’ groups say more than 500 women have come forward about abuse that allegedly took place at Harrods, Park Lane, Fulham football club, the Ritz hotel in Paris, and other places owned by Fayed. The Met is investigating 169 victims who have contacted the force directly.

The Ritz Paris told Agence France-Presse news agency that it “does not tolerate any form of harassment, abuse or inappropriate behaviour” and that it was ready “to cooperate fully with the competent judicial authorities”.

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Source: www.theguardian.com