LONDON: Mohamed Al-Fayed, the self-made Egyptian billionaire who bought department store Harrods and promoted the discredited conspiracy theory that the British royal family was behind the deaths of his son and Princess Diana, has died , Fulham Football Club said in a statement. statement.
“On behalf of everyone at Fulham Football Club, I send my sincere condolences to the family and friends of Mohamed Al Fayed on the news of his passing at the age of 94,” said Shahid Khan, who succeeded Al-Fayed as owner of the London Football Club. club.
Born in the Egyptian city of Alexandria, Al-Fayed began his career selling soft drinks, then worked as a sewing machine salesman. He built his family’s fortune in real estate, shipping and construction, first in the Middle East and then in Europe.
Even though Al-Fayed owned establishment symbols such as Harrods, Fulham and the Ritz Hotel in Paris, he was always an outsider in Britain, tolerated but not accepted.
He fell out with the British government over its refusal to grant him citizenship of the country that was his home for decades and often threatened to move to France, resulting in him being awarded the Legion of Honor, his highest civilian distinction.
Al-Fayed – who can be charming, autocratic, vindictive and sometimes extremely outspoken – spent 10 years trying to prove that Diana and her son Dodi were murdered when their car crashed in a road tunnel in Paris in 1997 while that they were trying to outrun the paparazzi. motorcycle photographers.
Without any evidence, according to the inquest into Diana’s death, he claimed she was carrying Dodi’s child and accused Prince Philip, the Queen’s husband, of ordering the British security services to kill to prevent her from marrying a Muslim and having his baby.
While Al-Fayed was known for his invention, exaggeration and boasting, he was also a central figure in key moments in Britain’s recent history.
His rancorous takeover of Harrods in 1985 sparked one of Britain’s bitterest business rows, while in 1994 he caused a scandal by revealing he had paid politicians to ask questions in his name in Parliament.
Like many billionaires, Al-Fayed rejected convention. He once said he wanted to be mummified in a golden sarcophagus set in a glass pyramid on the roof of Harrods.
In the store, where he instituted a dress code – even for customers – that he enforced in person, he installed a kitschy bronze memorial statue depicting Diana and Dodi dancing under the wings of an albatross.
As owner of Fulham, he erected a larger-than-life sequinned statue of Michael Jackson outside the ground, even though the singer only attended one match. When people complained, he would say, “If stupid fans don’t understand or appreciate such a gift, they can go to hell.” »
HARRODS TAKEOVER
Much of Al-Fayed’s past remains murky, even his date of birth. He said he was born in Egypt, then under British rule, in 1933. However, a British government investigation into the Harrods takeover put it in 1929.
Al-Fayed became resident in Britain in 1974 and added the al to his name. Presenting this as self-aggrandizement, the satirical magazine Private Eye dubbed him the “false pharaoh”.
In 1985, he and his brothers beat businessman Roland “Tiny” Rowland at Harrods, one of the most famous stores in the world.
Al-Fayed hoped that purchasing the store would gain him acceptance into British society. Instead, it led to a series of bitter confrontations.
Rowland took Al-Fayed and his brothers before a Commerce Department investigation, claiming they had misrepresented their wealth.
The investigation cast doubt on their origins within a wealthy business family, their past business relationships and their independent financial resources.
After a quarter of a century of ownership, Al-Fayed sold Harrods to Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund in 2010.
Al-Fayed’s application for British citizenship was refused by the government in 1995. He said racism kept him on the fringes of acceptability.
A year earlier, Al-Fayed embarrassed the government by revealing that he had made gifts and payments to politicians in exchange for parliamentary questions being asked for him. The so-called “cash for questions” scandal ended the careers of four politicians, including a minister.
The sleaze allegations undermined the Conservatives, who lost a landslide election to Labor leader Tony Blair in 1997.
DIANA AND DODI
That summer, Al-Fayed’s son Dodi began a relationship with Princess Diana, who had divorced Prince Charles, heir to the British throne. Dodi and Diana were photographed by British tabloids vacationing on a yacht in the south of France.
After a trip to Paris, the couple were killed when their Mercedes, driven at high speed by a driver who was drinking whiskey and trying to escape the paparazzi, crashed into a concrete pillar of the Pont de l’ Tunnel. Alma.
Wracked with grief and an overwhelming sense of injustice, Al-Fayed spent millions on legal battles to ensure an investigation took place.
When it began in London, a decade after the accident, Al-Fayed accused all members of the royal family, Prime Minister Blair, Diana’s sister Sarah, the French embalmers of Diana’s body and Parisian ambulance drivers.
But the jury said the couple was unlawfully killed by the conduct of their driver. Al-Fayed said he accepted the verdict and renounced any legal attempt to prove they were murdered.
“I leave the rest to God to take revenge,” he said.