In a luxury hotel searched in the case of accused of sexual crimes millionaire

French police have made detentions following searches at three properties, including the Paris-based Ritz Hotel, in connection with an investigation into sexual abuse and human trafficking by Mohammed Al Fayed, the father of Princess Diana's lover.

According to the Paris prosecutor's office, several people were taken into custody for questioning last month and later released. In mid-October, searches were also carried out at another house in Paris and Saint-Tropez, which are related to Fayed.

Several of Fayed's alleged victims were also interviewed by members of the organised crime unit of the Paris prosecutor's office.

The prosecutor’s office added that the searches were part of a preliminary investigation into “allegations of human trafficking committed by an organized group, aggravated pimping committed by an organized group, and rape.”.

In an email sent to victims of Al Fayed, London police said their officers were present at the searches on October 13 and 14 as part of a coordinated operation with French investigators.

The Paris prosecutor's office said: "In mid-October 2026, searches and evidence-gathering operations were carried out, notably at the Ritz Hotel in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, as well as the Villa of Saint Teresa in Saint-Tropez, the former property of Mohammed Al Fayed, and in the centre of Paris." Villa Windsor in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, in the presence of British investigators

The investigation is ongoing, and the digital materials seized during the searches are being analyzed.

One of the properties raided was St. Teresa's Castle in St. Tropez, one of the most exclusive villas on the French Riviera, where Diana, Princess of Wales, stayed with her sons in the summer of 1997, at the start of her relationship with Dodi, Fayed's son.

The other was Villa Windsor, the former holiday home of the Fayed family. This property in the western part of Paris previously belonged to the family of Charles de Gaulle, before he became president of France, and King Edward VIII, after his abdication, and his wife Wallis Simpson.

A London police spokesman confirmed that officers travelled to France last month and attended the operation.

Campaign groups representing Fayed's victims have called on Scotland Yard to conduct its own searches of the late billionaire's property.

Jen Mills and Lindsay Mason, co-chairs of Justice for Fayed Victims, said: We want the same scrutiny applied to every property where victims say they have been seized or abused, including here in the UK. The search for Paris and Saint-Tropez should be the beginning, not the end.

A spokesman for Nobody Above, a group of survivors of Fayed's violence, said: The French authorities have taken this case into the hands of their specialised anti-trafficking unit and the organised crime prosecutor's office and are investigating it as trafficking by an organised gang. The evidence in this case was never limited to the Harrods store. For two years, Scotland Yard avoided seeing it as something France recognized from the start: organized human trafficking organized by a network. The National Crime Agency must now take over the investigation.”.

Pelam Spong, who claims she was sold in Paris in 2008 on Fayed's orders and then sent to London where she was sexually assaulted by Fayed, said she was overjoyed after raids by French police. “Victims deserve action, not words,” she added.

Last November, she told French investigators from the Central Office for Combating Trafficking in Persons that Fayed, the owner of the Ritz Hotel in Paris, forcibly kissed her and offered a salary of 65,000 euros a year if she slept with him.

Victim groups say more than 500 women have reported harassment at Harrods, Park Lane, Fulham Football Club, the Ritz Hotel in Paris and other locations owned by Fayed. Police in London are investigating 169 victims who went to the police directly.

The Ritz Hotel in Paris told Agence France Presse that it “does not tolerate any form of harassment, abuse or inappropriate behaviour” and that it was prepared to “cooperate fully with the competent judicial authorities”.