37 Women Accuse “Sexual Predator” Mohamed Al-Fayed of Rape and Assault | BBC News

Sep 21, 2024 | Lawyers representing 37 women who say they were raped or sexually assaulted by Mohammed Al-Fayed say he was a monster and sexual predator, whose behaviour was enabled by Harrods, the luxury London department store he owned until 2010.

Mohamed Al-Fayed was an Egyptian, billionaire businessmen, whose residence and main business interests were in the UK for decades. He owned Harrods, Fulham Football Club in West London, and the Ritz Hotel in Paris.

His son Dodi was in a romantic relationship with Diana, Princess of Wales when they died in a car crash in Paris.

Mohamed Al-Fayed died in 2023 at the age of 94. The current owners of Harrods say they're appalled by the allegations and have put a settlement process in place for alleged victims.

A former manager of Fulham FC's women's team has said that female players weren't allowed to be left alone with the billonaire when he owned the club, because it was well known that he liked 'young, blonde girls'.

Jane Hill presents BBC News at Ten reporting by Helena Wilkinson, Daniel Sandford and Laura Scott.


Related material here.

Former Peer Nazir Ahmed Found Guilty of Serious Sexual Assault

THE GUARDIAN: Ahmed found guilty of two counts of attempted rape and one of buggery when he was a teenager in 1970s

The former peer Nazir Ahmed has been found guilty of serious sexual assault against a young boy and the attempted rape of a girl when he was a teenager in the 1970s.

Ahmed, 64, was found guilty on Wednesday of buggery against a boy in Rotherham, and twice attempting to rape a girl.

Buggery was the legal term for the specific sexual assault at the time of the offences.

The former Lord Ahmed of Rotherham was charged alongside his two older brothers, Mohammed Farouq, 71, and Mohammed Tariq, 65, but both were deemed unfit to stand trial. » | Maya Wolfe-Robinson | Wednesday, January 5, 2022

Kellyanne Conway: I'm a Victim of Sexual Assault

Counselor to President Trump, Kellyanne Conway, tells CNN's Jake Tapper that she is a victim of sexual assault while discussing the testimonies of Christine Blasey Ford and Judge Brett Kavanaugh.

Cuomo: Trump Doubled Down on Dumb

CNN's Chris Cuomo criticizes President Donald Trump for his response to the sexual assault allegations made against his Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

German Women Report String of Sexual Assaults by 'Arab and North African Men'

THE TELEGRAPH: Mayor of Cologne to investigate "outrageous" series of New Year's Eve attacks on women by large gangs of men “of Arab or North African appearance”

Police in Germany are investigating an alarming series of sexual assaults on women trying to celebrate the New Year by large groups of single men “of Arab or North African appearance”.

Authorities in the city of Cologne are to hold a crisis meeting on Tuesday after police described a group of some 1,000 men who took over the area around the main station on New Year’s Eve.

Women were robbed, groped, and had their underwear torn from their bodies, while couples had fireworks thrown at them.

Police have received 90 criminal complaints, around a quarter of them for sexual assault, including one case of rape.

Police in Hamburg say there was a series of similar incidents in the city’s Reeperbahn red-light area. Witnesses described groups of five to 15 men of who “hunted” women in the streets.

In Cologne, the attacks took place around the main station, opposite the cathedral, a traditional gathering spot to see in the New Year. » | Justin Huggler, Berlin | Tuesday, January 5, 2015

Saudi Beheads Man for Sexual Assault
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: A Saudi man was beheaded on Friday in Tabuk in the ultraconservative kingdom's north after being convicted of sexually assaulting another man's wife, a statement from the interior ministry said.

Adel bin Mohammed Assiri forcibly entered the man's apartment and assaulted the man's wife, hitting her, photographing her naked and attempting to rape her, said the statement carried by the official SPA news agency.

His execution brings to 32 the number of people beheaded in Saudi Arabia this year, according to an AFP tally based on official and human rights group reports. Continue reading and comment » | Saturday, July 16, 2011

Egyptian Banker Charged with Sexual Assault Is Granted Bail

THE GUARDIAN: Mahmoud Abdel-Salam Omar to reappear in court to face claims he sexually abused maid in luxury New York hotel

The former head of one of Egypt's biggest banks has been granted bail after being arrested and charged with sexually assaulting a maid at a luxury hotel in New York.

The arrest of Mahmoud Abdel-Salam Omar on Monday came two weeks after the then International Monetary Fund chief, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, was charged with trying to rape a hotel maid at another Manhattan hotel.

Strauss-Kahn, who is under house arrest in New York, has denied charges of a criminal sexual act, attempted rape, sexual abuse, unlawful imprisonment and forcible touching.
Manhattan criminal court judge Gerald Lebovits granted 72-year-old Omar bail for $25,000 (£15,000) cash and a $50,000 bond. » | Reuters in New York | Wednesday, June 01, 2011

Dominique Strauss-Kahn: DNA Samples Confirm Sperm Traces on Maid's Dress

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: DNA samples taken in the Dominique Strauss-Kahn case have confirmed traces of sperm on the maid's dress, according to reports.

The New York Police sent the test results to French authorities on Sunday where they allegedly confirmed the trace. The results are expected to be made public shortly.

Mr Strauss-Kahn, 62, who is accused of trying to rape a maid last week in his suite at the Sofitel hotel in New York, was released from Rikers Island jail on Friday.

His lawyer has already indicated he plans to argue that there was consent.

The latest revelations, published on the French website Atlantico.fr, came amid reports the former IMF chief sought the company of two female hotel members of staff after he checked into the Sofitel one day before his alleged sexual assault on the maid on May 14. Both receptionists declined the offer of a drink.

Mr Strauss-Kahn has been indicted on seven charges, including forcing the maid to perform oral sex on him and attempted rape. If he is convicted, he would face up to 25 years in prison. » | Henry Samuel, Paris | Monday, May 23, 2011

Strauss-Kahn Reveals Frustration in E-mail to IMF

CNN: Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who resigned last week as head of the International Monetary Fund in the face of sexual assault charges, told the fund's staff of his "profound sadness and frustration in having to leave under these circumstances" in an e-mail obtained by CNN.

"I deny in the strongest possible terms the allegations which I now face," Strauss-Kahn wrote to his former employees.

IMF acting head John Lipsky forwarded the e-mail to the fund's staff Sunday evening. It was then obtained exclusively by CNN's Nina dos Santos.

The Frenchman said he is confident that he will be exonerated of charges of attacking a hotel maid in New York, but he could not "accept that the Fund -- and you dear colleagues -- should in any way have to share my own personal nightmare. So, I had to go." » | CNN Wire Staff | Monday, May 23, 2011

Former IMF head Strauss-Kahn's farewell to staff: Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s farewell e-mail to the staff at the International Monetary Fund following his resignation last week (email in Full) »

DSK : "Ces derniers jours ont été extrêmement douloureux"
LE POINT: EXCLUSIF. L'ex-directeur du FMI dit avoir démissionné pour épargner son "cauchemar" à l'institution. Lisez son e-mail d'au revoir.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn a adressé dimanche un courrier électronique au FMI, transmis à l'ensemble du personnel de l'institution. Le Point.fr a pu se procurer l'e-mail rédigé en anglais. En voici la traduction :

"Chers collègues

Vous avez pris connaissance de ma lettre de démission du poste de directeur du FMI - une des choses les plus difficiles sur lesquelles j'ai dû communiquer. J'avais très envie de m'adresser à vous personnellement et directement pour vous exprimer ma profonde tristesse et aussi ma frustration d'avoir à partir dans ces circonstances. Je le fais parce que c'est ce que je peux faire de mieux dans l'intérêt d'une institution que je respecte profondément, je le fais pour vous aussi, cette équipe que j'apprécie et que j'admire. » | Le Point.fr | Lundi 23 Mai 2011

Affaire DSK : à la recherche de la femme sans visage
LE POINT: Les images de DSK abondent. Son accusatrice, elle, est invisible depuis le début de l'affaire. Direction le Bronx, son quartier.

C'est la femme sans visage. Où est Nafissatou Diallo, alias Ophelia, la jeune femme que DSK est accusé d'avoir agressée sexuellement ? Alors que, depuis une semaine, les images sous toutes les coutures de l'ex-patron du FMI, de son épouse, de sa fille (sur)abondent, aucune photo "officielle" de la victime présumée ne circule. On sait qu'elle a 32 ans, serait musulmane et originaire de Guinée et a une fille adolescente.

Le Sofitel où elle est employée depuis trois ans assure qu'elle donnait "toute satisfaction" et son avocat a expliqué à la télévision que c'était une femme qui travaillait dur et qu'elle "a(vait) peur", qu'elle était "perdue". Le reste, ce sont des rumeurs. Un jour, elle est mère célibataire, le lendemain, divorcée, le troisième, veuve. Elle a un frère qui n'est pas son frère, une soeur qui l'aurait fait venir aux États-Unis il y a 7 ou 15 ans. Elle est très grande, a le visage grêlé par l'acné...

Bouche cousue

Alors, après la traque DSK, tous les médias se sont lancés sur la piste de la jeune femme. Une piste qui commence dans le Bronx. Le coeur de la communauté guinéenne se trouve sur la 3e avenue et la 166e rue, un quartier pauvre avec des garages, un petit restaurant qui propose des plats traditionnels, une épicerie, un boucher qui vend des chèvres et des moutons vivants... et une mosquée, le centre islamique Fouta, un petit bâtiment de briques avec deux gros rideaux de fer au rez-de-chaussée. En ce samedi, la salle de prière au premier étage, une grande pièce moquettée, est occupée par l'école coranique pour les enfants. » | Dimanche 22 Mai 2011

„DSK“ und Anne Sinclair: Szenen einer Ehe

FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE: Anne Sinclair kämpft mit Format, Geld und Engelsgeduld um die Zukunft ihres Mannes Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Eine-Million-Dollar-Kaution hat sie gezahlt, damit ihr Gatte aus dem New Yorker Schwerverbrecherknast Rikers freikam.

Was für eine Frau! Er hatte ihr den Elysée-Palast versprochen – und jetzt muss sie ihn mit ihren Millionen vor dem Gefängnis retten. Anne Sinclair hat die Eine-Million-Dollar-Kaution gezahlt, ihre Luxusvilla im Washingtoner Stadtteil Georgetown als Hypothek freigegeben, damit Dominique Strauss-Kahn aus dem New Yorker Schwerverbrecherknast Rikers freikam. Sie hat eine Wohnung gemietet, in der er mit einer elektronischen Fessel am Fuß bleiben kann. Auch wenn erst einmal nichts daraus wurde. Wegen des Medienrummels waren die Nachbarn dagegen, sitzt Strauss-Kahn nun in einem Apartment in der Nähe von Ground Zero in Hausarrest. Anne Sinclair, die unschuldig in einen entehrenden Sexskandal gezogene Ehefrau, setzt ihr Vermögen aufs Spiel, damit die besten Anwälte ihren Mann vor Gericht verteidigen. „Die Beweislast gegen ihn ist umfangreich“, sagt der New Yorker Staatsanwalt. „Sie wächst jeden Tag weiter.“ „Dominique Strauss-Kahn kann sich glücklich schätzen, dass er eine Frau wie Anne Sinclair hat“, sagt Robert Badinter, der sozialistische Justizminister, der 1981 in Frankreich die Todesstrafe abschaffte.

Ohne zu wissen, was in der Suite 2806 des New Yorker Luxushotels Sofitel zur Mittagsstunde wirklich geschah, entschloss sich Anne Sinclair zu unbedingter Solidarität. Ihr Mann soll ein schwarzes Zimmermädchen vergewaltigt haben? „Ich glaube keine Sekunde lang den Anschuldigungen, die gegen meinen Mann erhoben werden“, schrieb sie in einem Kommuniqué. „Ich zweifle nicht daran, dass sich seine Schuldlosigkeit erweisen wird.“ » | Von Michaela Wiegel, Paris | Sonntag, 22. Mai 2011

Strauss-Kahn aus Haft entlassen

Le «purgatoire» d’Anne Sinclair

CYBERPRESSE.CA – BLOGUE – RICHARD HÉTU: Le New York Times publie aujourd’hui en première page un excellent papier sur le «purgatoire» que vit Anne Sinclair depuis l’arrestation de son mari, Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Le quotidien raconte qu’elle était prête à mettre au service des ambitions présidentielles de DSK une partie de l’importante fortune dont elle a hérité de son grand-père maternel, Paul Rosenberg, marchand d’art et galeriste célèbre pour avoir représenté Picasso, Braque et Matisse, entre autres.

Selon les confidences d’un ami de Sinclair au journal Le Monde, l’ancienne journaliste voulait «prouver que, 75 ans après Léon Blum, les Français étaient capables d’élire un juif». Un autre ami, Alain Duhamel, confie cependant au Times que la femme de DSK appréhendait la campagne présidentielle et qu’elle et son mari considéraient leur religion comme «une question pratique pour la campagne» et non une quelconque grande cause. » | Richard Hétu | Samedi 21 Mai 2011

Culture Wars across the Atlantic

OTTAWA CITIZEN: While media fire shots over U.S. 'puritanism' and French 'perversion,' little thought is given to Dominique Strauss-Kahn's alleged victim, writes Keith Spicer

Manacled, unshaven, and dazzled by media lights, a grim and shaken Dominique Strauss-Kahn did the "perp walk" toward a Rikers Island jail cell. French observers called the stunning fall of the managing director of the International Monetary Fund a Greek tragedy. Most rushed to defend him as a respected national figure who had likely been headed to the French presidency.

Americans tended to judge "DSK" (as Strauss-Kahn is known in France) as a disgusting, violent sex criminal -already showcased as a "perpetrator" by New York police. These sharply differing views highlight again how wide the Atlantic really is in perceptions of justice, culture, rationality, media and class.

The scandal, most French feel, is about a U.S. justice system visually sabotaging the presumption of innocence. Sober top jurist Robert Badinter (a close friend of DSK) called the perp walk "a lynching, murder by media." In France, it's illegal to insinuate guilt by parading a handcuffed accused before news cameras.

French intellectuals, also pals of DSK, spluttered their fury at U.S. justice. All-purpose philosopher-opinionator Bernard-Henri Levy (as BHL, an acronym guy like DSK) assured that his renowned skirt-chasing friend was "not a Neanderthal." On the perp walk, BHL said: "Nothing in the world justifies throwing a man to the dogs like that."

English-speaking opinion-makers, however, saw DSK's humiliation as noble evidence that U.S. justice treats everybody - rich or poor, famous or obscure - exactly the same. Mistreats everybody the same might seem more apt. But in American minds, sticking to strict police procedures designed partly to prevent escapes is a normal precaution.

Why else do U.S. police routinely, and rather gleefully, choreograph the shaming of suspects? Because spiriting them in and out in blacked-out vans doesn't delight the police's key publics: picture-hungry media and crowd-pandering elected district attorneys. » | Keith Spicer | OTTAWA CITIZEN | Saturday, May 21, 2011

Strauss-Kahn's Lawyer to Haaretz: Former IMF Chief Will Be Acquitted

HAARETZ: Attorney Benjamin Brafman says that if Strauss-Kahn had not been famous and had not been a foreigner, the court would not have demanded the unusually high bail.

The lawyer of former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn told Haaretz Sunday that his client would be acquitted of the sexual assault charges that have shocked the economic world.

"He'll plead not guilty and in the end he'll be acquitted," said attorney Benjamin Brafman in his first interview since his client was arrested last week for the alleged attack on a New York City chambermaid.

Brafman, on a short trip to Israel to attend to family obligations, spent the weekend in north Jerusalem with his son - a rabbi - and his grandchildren.

Brafman met with Haaretz while he was on his way to light a Lag Ba'omer bonfire with the grandchildren.

Brafman, 62, is used to scandals and high-profile cases. He has defended Michael Jackson, crime boss Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano, online gambling king Jay Cohen and rapper Jay-Z. Another of his clients, rapper Sean Combs, gave him the nickname "Uncle Benny." » | Chaim Levinson | Sunday, May 22, 2011

French Weekly Magazines Review

rfi ENGLISH: The French weeklies all put up special dossiers on the Dominique Strauss-Kahn affair. The right-leaning magazines aren’t mincing words. "Shame" headlines Le Figaro. "Downfall" writes Le Point. "The scandal that changes everything" says l’Express and “descent to hell”, according to left-leaning Le Nouvel Observateur.

France is ashamed of Strauss-Kahn’s humiliating pictures writes Le Figaro - ashamed of being ridiculed in the eyes of the world. The conservative journal says in an editorial, that the affair lends credence to the erroneous, but long –upheld view, that France is a nation of pleasure seekers. Le Figaro states that Strauss-Kahn has always had a soft spot for women which he often boasted about. The journal lambasts the socialists for rushing out to support him as the scandal broke out.

Some said it was a diabolical smear and lynching campaign hashed by a black cabinet to prevent him from becoming president of France. Le Figaro regrets that the politicians who piled-up all the blind support for DSK had no word for the poor black woman at the centre of the case. Le Figaro dispatched a team to New York’s Bronx district, home to the alleged rape victim, Nafissatou Diallo. It reports that the Guinean community there has been staging demonstrations in support of her clamour for justice.

Le Point agrees with Le Figaro that the Strauss-Kahn affair has claimed a terrible toll on France’s image abroad."What a fall" screams the journal which runs a 10-page dossier on the tragic descent to hell of the popular politician who had been poised to possibly become France's next president. Le Point runs excerpts from the New York tabloids reporting of the damaging story including The Daily News, The New Yorker and even the respected Wall Street Journal. The magazine says Strauss-Kahn's name has been tarnished forever, no matter the outcome of the case, pointing to the fact that his socialist comrades are already burying him, some with flowers, others without. » | William Niba | Sunday, May 22, 2011

Guinean Woman Nafissatou Diallo Is Reportedly the Accuser in Strauss-Kahn Affair
HAMSAYEH.NET – EXTRACT: The Sofitel Hotel is run by its French owners and is considered one of the most expensive hotels in New York. There have been numerous reports of a frame up by powerful political factions in particular those connected to Nicholas Sarkozy and his supporters. Also, it seems that powerful interest groups have been worried over Strauss-Kahn’s future plans to reorganize the way the IMF nromally functions. Read it all » | Sunday, May 22, 2011

Nafissatou Diallo, la femme qui a repoussé les avances de DSK
ECHOS D’AFRIQUE: Qui est vraiment LA VIERGE Nafissatou Diallo? Celle qui a dit NON comme le president Sekou Toure.

Une jolie femme de nationalité guinéenne sans histoire, sérieuse et qui n’a pu être manipulée selon ses collègues et employeur.

Selon sa famille, qui préfère rester anonyme, Nafissatou Diallo, 32 ans, est aux États-Unis depuis treize ans, où elle menait jusqu’à samedi 14 mai 15H09 une vie sans histoire.

Fille d’un commerçant guinéen, originaire de la région de Labé Guinee-Conakry ou Sekou Touré, Nafissatou Diallo a suivi son mari, un commerçant guinéen, aux États-Unis en 1998. Ce qu’on appelle en France un regroupement familiale. » | Source: Afrohistorama | Mercredi 18 Mai 2011

Was DSK Stitched Up?
COUNTER PUNCH: The French are for the millionaire. The Americans are for the maid. Among the French, three out of five think the IMF’s former managing director, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, has been framed. (Strauss-Kahn tendered his resignation as head of the IMF May 18.) Here in the USA there’s not been a reliable poll, but public sentiment is clearly against Strauss-Kahn, amplified by self-congratulation that America is a nation of laws, a maid’s word as potent as that of a millionaire, in contrast to the moral decay and deference to the rich prevalent in France.

The French, for their part, stigmatize America as a puritanical, omnipotent imperial police state, whose intelligence agencies are efficiently capable of any infamy. But even as they charge that Strauss-Kahn was set up, the French press is rather weak on identifying or even suggesting the precise mastermind or group working to destroy a man who might have been the French Socialist Party’s candidate, evicting Sarkozy from the Elysee Palace. (They miss the real damage to France's reputation, not to mention balance of payments, which is that previously women from the US or northern Europe have booked costly tours to France hoping to be seduced by Charles Boyer or Michel Piccoli or Alain Delon or, if you like heavy smokers, Jean-Paul Belmondo, or Gerard Depardieu. They will will now, rather than be attacked by a Gallic sexual psychopath, elect to go straight to Italy notwithstanding the chances of a semi-senile Berlusconi jumping out of the bushes, shouting "Bunga, Bunga.")

In Parisian financial circles some charge that this is an attack on “les juifs”. Following this line, they suggest it’s a plot by the Muslims, presumptively eager to contrive any embarrassment to a well-known Jew, and indeed ardent Zionist, also perhaps because the agent of Strauss-Kahn’s downfall, the 32-year maid accusing Strauss-Kahn of a serious sexual assault – widely identified on French and West African websites as Nafissatou Diallo -- is a Muslim from the West African nation of Guinea. (And yes, the name Diallo does ring a bell. Amadou Diallo (September 2, 1975–February 4, 1999) was a 23-year-old Guinean immigrant in New York City who was shot and killed on February 4, 1999 by four plain-clothes members of the NYPD who fired 41 rounds at him. They were all subsequently acquitted.) » | Alexander Cockburn | Weekend Edition, Friday, May 20, 2011 – Sunday, May 22, 2011

“Strauss-Kahn is being framed up because the IMF recently announced that ‘the age of America is over,’ that China will be the number one economy within five years. This was a massive blow to Washington, and they are taking their revenge.” – Paul Craig Roberts, assistant secretary of the US Treasury in Reagan’s time