LONDON: A legal team representing women alleging rape and sexual assault by the late Egyptian billionaire Mohamed Al-Fayed said on Saturday it received over 150 new enquiries, including from women accusing the former Harrods owner.
The BBC released a documentary and podcast on Thursday in which Fayed is accused by multiple women who worked at the London luxury department store of sexual assault, including five accusing him of rape.
The new enquiries included a “mix of survivors and individuals with evidence” about Fayed, the legal team confirmed to AFP, after announcing it was representing 37 women accusing Fayed of sex abuse.
Comparing the scale and nature of the case to claims made against fallen figures like Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein, lawyers said the allegations included some girls who were just 15 and 16 at the time of the alleged assault.
The team is bringing claims against Harrods for enabling the “systematic abuse” of its employees, many hired as Fayed’s personal assistants and secretaries, over a period of 25 years.
The accusers say assaults took place at Fayed’s apartments in London, residences in Paris, and on trips abroad from Saint-Tropez to Abu Dhabi.
The upmarket department store, which Fayed sold in 2010, said it was “utterly appalled” by the allegations and had received new enquiries as well since the BBC investigation.
The Harrods website now has a form that victims can complete, adding that it had an “established process” for those affected to claim compensation.
The legal team also said it was representing women who were employed by the Ritz hotel — which was also owned by the mogul.
A former manager of the women’s team at Fulham FC, also owned by Fayed until 2013, said the players were “protected” from Fayed.
“We were aware he liked young, blonde girls. So we just made sure that situations couldn’t occur,” Gaute Haugenes, who managed the team from 2001 to 2003, told the BBC on Saturday.
A Fulham FC spokesperson said the club was “deeply troubled and concerned.”
“We are in the process of establishing whether anyone at the club is or has been affected,” the spokesperson added.
Lawyers of women alleging Al-Fayed sex abuse receive over 150 new enquiries
https://arab.news/rvmfw
Lawyers of women alleging Al-Fayed sex abuse receive over 150 new enquiries
- BBC released a documentary and podcast on Thursday in which Fayed is accused by multiple women who worked at the London luxury department store of sexual assault
Second death in Minneapolis crackdown heaps pressure on Trump
- Federal agents shot and killed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, early Saturday while scuffling with him on an icy roadway in the Midwestern city
MINNEAPOLIS: The Trump administration faced intensifying pressure Sunday over its mass immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, after federal agents shot dead a second US citizen and graphic cell phone footage again contradicted officials’ immediate description of the incident.
Federal agents shot and killed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, early Saturday while scuffling with him on an icy roadway in the Midwestern city, less than three weeks after an immigration officer fired on Renee Good, also 37, killing her in her car.
President Donald Trump’s administration quickly claimed that Pretti had intended to harm the federal agents — as it did after Good’s death — pointing to a pistol it said was discovered on him.
However, video shared widely on social media and verified by US media showed Pretti never drawing a weapon, with agents firing around 10 shots at him seconds after he was sprayed in the face with chemical irritant and thrown to the ground.
The video further inflamed ongoing protests in Minneapolis against the presence of federal agents, with around 1,000 people participating in a demonstration Sunday.
After top officials described Pretti as an “assassin” who had assaulted the agents, Pretti’s parents issued a statement Saturday condemning the administration’s “sickening lies” about their son.
Asked Sunday what she would say to Pretti’s parents, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said: “Just that I’m grieved for them.”
“I truly am. I can’t even imagine losing a child,” she told Fox News show “The Sunday Briefing.”
She said more clarity would come as an investigation progresses.
US Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, speaking to NBC’s “Meet the Press,” also said an investigation was necessary to get a full understanding of the killing.
Asked if agents had already removed the pistol from Pretti when they fired on him, Blanche said: “I do not know. And nobody else knows, either. That’s why we’re doing an investigation.”
‘Joint’ probe
Their comments came after multiple senators from Trump’s Republican Party called for a thorough probe into the killing, and for cooperation with local authorities.
“There must be a full joint federal and state investigation,” Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana said.
The Trump administration controversially excluded local investigators from a probe into Good’s killing.
Minnesota’s Democratic Governor Tim Walz posed a question directly to the president during a press briefing Sunday, asking: “What’s the plan, Donald Trump?“
“What do we need to do to get these federal agents out of our state?“
Thousands of federal immigration agents have been deployed to heavily Democratic Minneapolis for weeks, after conservative media reported on alleged fraud by Somali immigrants.
Trump has repeatedly amplified the racially tinged accusations, including on Sunday when he posted on his Truth Social platform: “Minnesota is a Criminal COVER UP of the massive Financial Fraud that has gone on!“
The city, known for its bitterly cold winters, has one of the country’s highest concentrations of Somali immigrants.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison pushed back against Trump’s claim, telling reporters “it’s not about fraud, because if he sent people who understand forensic accounting, we’d be having a different conversation. But he’s sending armed masked men.”
Court order
Since “Operation Metro Surge” began, many residents have carried whistles to notify others of the presence of immigration agents, while sometimes violent skirmishes have broken out between the officers and protesters.
Local authorities have sued the federal government seeking a court order to suspend the operation, with a first hearing set for Monday.
Recent polling has shown voters increasingly upset with Trump’s domestic immigration operations, as videos of masked agents seizing people off sidewalks — including children — and dramatic stories of US citizens being detained proliferate.
Barack and Michelle Obama on Sunday forcefully condemned Pretti’s killing, saying in a statement it should be a “wake-up call” that core US values “are increasingly under assault.”
The former president and first lady blasted Trump and his government as seeming “eager to escalate the situation.”
