Ritz among Paris sites searched over alleged trafficking network linked to late billionaire Mohamed Al-Fayed

Nevin Al Sukari - Sana'a - This file picture taken on October 18, 2008 in London shows Fulham’s Chairman Mohamed Al-Fayed arriving at Craven Cottage in London. — AFP pic

PARIS (France), Nov 11  — French police have searched two Paris properties linked to Mohamed Al-Fayed, the Ritz and Villa Windsor, as part of an investigation into an alleged international network trafficking women for the late billionaire, prosecutors told AFP today.

The operations in mid-October at the swanky hotel and the onetime residence of the former king of England represent a development in a probe launched in 2025 to track down accomplices of Fayed and his brother, Salah Al-Fayed.

The Paris prosecutor’s office told AFP individuals had been held for questioning in the investigation and authorities were analysing computers, phones and other digital media.

Along with the searches and evidence-gathering operations at the emblematic Paris addresses, authorities also investigated Mohamed Al-Fayed’s former property on the French Riviera, the Castel Sainte-Therese in Saint-Tropez.

The Egyptian-born tycoon, who died aged 94 in 2023 with no charges brought against him despite multiple complaints, owned the Ritz as well as the London luxury department store Harrods and the Fulham football club.

He had lived at the Villa Windsor, the well-known former British royal residence in the Bois de Boulogne in western Paris that the Al-Fayed family had made their favourite holiday home in the French capital.

Victims cited the locations as the sites of alleged abuse by Fayed.

The Paris prosecutor’s office in the summer of 2025 opened an investigation into claims of aggravated human trafficking, procuring prostitutes and rape in a bid to shed light on the alleged network and track down accomplices.

The alleged trafficking ring is believed to have extended into France, particularly at the Ritz and on the French Riviera.

France’s anti-human trafficking unit has interviewed at least five complainants as part of the investigation.

Sources close to the case told AFP that the recent searches and detentions for questioning were carried out in connection with the probe.

‘Courage to speak out’

The investigation is running parallel to British proceedings linked to the wide-ranging scandal over alleged sexual abuse involving Mohamed Al-Fayed.

As of mid-October, 163 victims have reported allegations to the police of sexual assault, rape, sexual exploitation and human trafficking in relation to Fayed. London’s Metropolitan Police acknowledges they are aware of many more who have not come forward.

The Met have been heavily criticised by many survivors of Al-Fayed’s alleged abuse for being slow to grasp the scale of the alleged offences and investigate accordingly.

The London force has questioned seven people suspected of enabling Mohamed Al-Fayed, but none has been charged.

French and British investigators have also been exchanging information and the prosecutor’s office said UK authorities were present during the recent operations.

“Every month, new victims from around the world overcome their fears and find the courage to speak out about what they endured. And we continue to uncover, with astonishment, the scale of Mohamed and Salah Al-Fayed’s actions,” lawyers Eva Joly, Caroline Joly and Agathe Barril, who represent several complainants, told AFP.

“We are, however, only halfway through the investigations,” they added. “But the testimony already points to an organisation in which their immense personal wealth and business empire were allegedly mobilised in the service of their sexual predation: a mechanism devised with cold calculation and meticulous care.”

The management of the Ritz, the famed five-star hotel on Paris’s Place Vendome, told AFP it “does not tolerate any form of harassment, abuse or inappropriate behaviour”, adding that it was ready “to cooperate fully with the competent judicial authorities”. — AFP