Reports on the case of Mohamed Al-Fayed, a well-known Egyptian businessman living in the United Kingdom, are multiplying. His name is now at the center of a wide-ranging scandal involving allegations of sexual violence and abuse. This situation is exacerbated by complaints filed by around 400 alleged witnesses and victims of the alleged wrongdoing attributed to the tycoon, who died at the age of 94 last year. Added to these allegations are increasingly embarrassing revelations about the inaction of the British police and authorities.
Until now, Scotland Yard has claimed to have received the first reports as early as 2005 and to have opened two specific files that were subsequently closed by the Crown Prosecution Service, the second time under the direction of the current Prime Minister Keir Starmer. This event was justified by the lack of sufficient evidence. However, the family of Samantha Ramsey, a young former employee of the famous Harrods department store, disputed these claims. According to them, Samantha had reported harassment suffered by the businessman as early as 1995, when she was only 17 years old, but the investigators did not pay attention to her words.
Samantha’s mother and sister, Wendy and Emma, told the BBC that “many victims could have been saved” if the investigation system had worked properly. In the current context, dozens of women have launched a legal battle to obtain compensation from both the state and the heirs of Al-Fayed’s estate. Among the latter is also the sovereign wealth fund of Qatar, which took control of Harrods in 2010 and whose corporate structure is suspected of having facilitated a system to recruit vulnerable young women.
The allegations are not limited to Harrods; they also involve other businesses owned by Al-Fayed. They include former employees of the Ritz hotel in Paris and former players from the Fulham Football Club women’s team. The seriousness of the allegations raises questions about how the reports have been handled over the years and the responsibility of the relevant institutions in dealing with such sensitive cases.
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