The daddy of a lady who was raped and killed nearly 20 years earlier has actually gotten in touch with the foreign secretary for aid to have the primary suspect extradited from Yemen.
Farouk Abdulhak is the only suspect in the killing of Martine Vik Magnussen, 23, whose “semi-naked” body was found in the basement of his flat on Terrific Portland Street, Marylebone, in March 2008.
Mr Abdulhak left to Yemen through Egypt in the hours after the Norwegian trainee’s death, and regardless of desperate pleas by Martine’s household and Scotland Backyard, the boy of among the wealthiest males in the Middle East has actually not gone back to Britain to deal with charges.
Raised in between the United States and Egypt, Mr Abdulhak is the boy of billionaire beverages magnate Shaher Abdulhak, understood in Yemen as the “King of Sugar”, who was friends with president Ali Abdullah Saleh before the latter’s assassination by the Houthis in 2017.
Mr Abdulhak, who is on the Metropolitan Authorities’s many desired list and is the topic of a global arrest warrant, had actually never ever entered Yemen before the murder.
Regardless of an active Interpol Red Notification, and the cancellation of his United States passport and double Egyptian citizenship, Mr Abdulhak continues to prevent extradition to Britain as he has a Yemeni passport, which gives him a sanctuary in the meantime.
However after more than 17 years of settlements with the Yemeni authorities, ambassadors and even Houthi leaders, Martine’s daddy is contacting Britain’s foreign secretary David Lammy to assist close a loophole that indicates fugitives can live easily in Yemen, which has no main extradition plans with the UK.
He informed The Independent: “As the daddy of a girl completely raped and killed, the most ancient and severe criminal offense, its intensity is intensified by the reality that the suspect has actually stayed beyond the reach of justice, protected by Houthi authorities in Yemen.
” Martine’s case shows how wealth and local instability can block justice and, many painfully, how they reject my household closure.”
He got in touch with Mr Lammy to step in and use pressure on the Houthis to see if Mr Abdulhak’s Yemeni passport can be withdrawed considered that he is a suspect in a “prominent” murder case.
Mr Magnussen included: “A simply resolution to Martine’s case would send out an effective signal to the worldwide criminal neighborhood: crossing a border is no longer an assurance of impunity.
” If her awful death can add to a more comprehensive awakening, to a restored dedication to justice for victims of gender-based violence throughout borders, then there is some little procedure of solace in understanding that her life– and her loss– were not fruitless.”
And dealing with Mr Abdulhak straight, Mr Magnussen advised him to hand himself in.
” Get practical: this case is not disappearing. Your scenario is inferior than if you took the guts to return to the UK and have your case attempted in a reasonable trial,” he stated.
Mr Magnussen confesses that he has actually ended up being sick of the “backward and forward” of corresponding and organizing conferences with ambassadors and political leaders, all guaranteeing him advance on his child’s case.
In a series of texts sent out to BBC News Arabic unique reporter Nawal al-Maghafi, Mr Abdulhak confessed that he moved Martine’s body however stated her death was a “sex mishap failed”, which he “deeply is sorry for”. He composed: “I do not understand what occurred, it’s all a blur.”
Mr Magnussen contested that variation of occasions, stating: “She had more than 40 injuries on her body– this isn’t part of a strangling sex act.”
Martine disappeared after a night out with pals at the Maddox bar in Mayfair to commemorate ending up end-of-term tests, on 14 March 2008.
In 2010, Westminster Coroner’s Court heard she was last seen leaving the club with Mr Abdulhak at 3.20 am. By the time her body was found, he had actually left the UK on his daddy’s personal jet to Cairo, where his household supposedly smuggled him over the border into Yemen.
DI Jim Barry, who is leading Scotland Backyard’s examination, released a direct attract Mr Abdulhak in March.
” You have actually been running and concealing for 17 years. It is time to mature and face your duties to Martine and her household. Pertain to the UK now and discuss all to a court and jury. Our pursuit of you will not stop.”
A federal government representative for the Foreign Workplace decreased to talk about extradition problems. They stated: “Our ideas are with the household of Martine Magnussen. We stay in contact with the household to supply assistance.”