In a new documentary series from the BBC and TV 2, the wanted Yemenite admits to having been involved in the death of Martine Vik Magnussen.
“It was just an accident. Nothing malicious … like I told you, just a sex accident gone wrong”.
The writes TV 2 that Farouk Abdulhak has written in a message to a BBC journalist.
He was wanted internationally, and suspected of murder and rape of the 23-year-old Norwegian student Martine Vik Magnussen in London in March 2008.
He studied together with the Norwegian 23-year-old at Regent Business School in London, and is from one of Yemen’s most powerful and richest families.
– For my part, I am emotionally provoked by suspects who are completely free of remorse or empathy for us survivors, at the same time we are very satisfied to have finally received an admission that he has killed Martine, says Martine’s father, Odd Petter Magnussen, to VG.
Magnussen believes that Farouk’s statement “changes everything”:
– In my world, after 15 years with the case, this is a clear game changer.
Get updated – this is the Martine case:
Abdulhak left London only hours after the Norwegian woman was killed. She was not found until three days later – in the garbage room of the apartment building where Abdulhak lived.
Martine was found strangled to death, and with 43 different cuts and injuries.
Abdulhak fled to Yemen and has since been able to live in freedom there due to the lack of extradition agreements.
Yemen’s constitution also prohibits extradition of citizens to other countries.
To BBC Abdulhak says he does not want to go back to the UK, as he believes the legal system there will be biased against him.
Watch video – here Martine’s mother confronts a family member of a murder suspect:
“Should have been (…)”
In messages to the BBC journalist, reproduced at the BBChe writes, among other things, that he regrets going to Yemen.
– I deeply regret the unfortunate incident that happened. I regret coming here. Should have stayed and taken the consequences of that, he writes, according to the channel.
In several messages, he further writes that he does not remember much of what happened that night in 2008, when Martine was killed.
– I have flashbacks from time to time, he writes.
I a BBC thing tells journalist Nawal Al-Maghafi how she worked her way up to get in touch with the wanted Yemeni.
She writes that she finally got hold of him through Snapchat, and that their shared Yemenite background formed the basis of a relationship between them.
– Do you want to tell me what happened? She writes that she asked Abdulhak.
– I don’t know what happened, everything is a blur, he replied, according to the BBC.
Al-Maghafi writes that they also talked about growing up and which places they liked in London.
– I did something when I was younger, which was a mistake. I told you my real name, I specifically can’t go to the UK because of something that happened there, he allegedly replied.
New arrest
Last March, 14 years after Martine’s murder, there was a sudden development – a female relative of Abdulhak was arrested on suspicion of assisting a criminal.
She was released the same evening under restrictions. A prosecution decision against the woman was expected, but at the end of March the last restrictions were removed, and the woman was “released under investigation.”
– I believe that he will get another chance to make himself available to the police in London. For the first time he admits that he has committed an act against Martine, says lawyer Patrick Lundevall-Unger at the Martine foundation.
Lundevall-Unger was together with Martine’s father in meetings with Scotland Yard two weeks ago, where it emerged that legal action is being taken against the woman who was arrested in March last year.
– He takes responsibility for protecting this female relative, says Lundevall-Unger.
