PARIS — French investigators seeking people who may have enabled alleged abuse by Mohamed Al-Fayed have searched the Ritz hotel and Villa Windsor in Paris, with computers, phones and other digital material under examination, according to prosecutors quoted in an AFP report published by CTV News.
The operations took place in mid-October and were confirmed on Tuesday, November 10. Investigators also carried out evidence-gathering work at Castel Sainte-Thérèse, a former Al-Fayed property in Saint-Tropez on the French Riviera.
People were taken into police custody for questioning as part of the French inquiry. The report did not identify them or announce charges against them. It said British authorities were present during the operations and that investigators in the two countries had been exchanging information.
The Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office opened the investigation in summer 2025 into allegations of aggravated human trafficking, procuring and rape, according to the AFP report carried by CTV News. Its purpose includes identifying possible accomplices of Mohamed Al-Fayed and his brother, Salah Al-Fayed.
The digital evidence is an important part of the outstanding work. Prosecutors said analysis of computers, phones and other material would continue. The account does not disclose what their contents show, and the searches themselves do not establish that anyone assisted the alleged offending.
Al-Fayed died in 2023, aged 94, without criminal charges having been brought against him despite multiple complaints. He owned the Ritz and the London department store Harrods. The French investigation is focused on a suspected network and possible accomplices, rather than a prosecution of the deceased businessman.
The Eastern Herald previously covered allegations against Mohamed Al-Fayed and survivors’ demands for a British inquiry. The confirmation of searches adds a concrete investigative step in France, separate from the earlier public accounts of abuse.
In Britain, 163 people had reported allegations of sexual assault, rape, sexual exploitation and human trafficking in relation to Al-Fayed by mid-October, according to the CTV report. London’s Metropolitan Police said it was aware of others who had not come forward. That figure concerns reports to British police, not the number of complainants interviewed in France.
Lawyers Eva Joly, Caroline Joly and Agathe Barril, who represent several complainants, told AFP that more women continued to come forward. They said the testimony pointed to an alleged organisation in which the brothers’ personal wealth and business interests were used to facilitate abuse, while emphasising that the investigations were not complete. That is the lawyers’ account of the evidence, not a court finding.
The Ritz’s management told AFP that it did not tolerate harassment, abuse or inappropriate behaviour and was ready to cooperate fully with the judicial authorities. The response was included in CTV’s account of the searches.
The hotel is on Place Vendôme in central Paris. Villa Windsor, in the Bois de Boulogne in western Paris, was a former British royal residence used by the Al-Fayed family. Their association with the businessman explains their prominence in the reporting, but does not establish the involvement of current staff or management.
The identities and alleged roles of the people questioned in France remain undisclosed in the account examined. Investigators are still analysing the digital material that could help establish whether others knowingly organised or facilitated the alleged exploitation.
