LONDON (Dagbladet): Odd Petter Magnussen is sitting in a hotel in London’s nicer district. He is the father of Martine Vik Magnussen, who was killed in 2008, just a few kilometers away.
For 14 years, the suspected killer has been wanted internationally. The Egyptian rich man’s son Farouk Abdulhak will now be in Yemen’s capital Sana.
The city of millions has been under the control of the Houthi movement since 2014. The Houthis are a rebel group that has been at war with Yemeni government forces for many years.
Investigating opportunity: – Can be an alternative
Magnussen’s longtime supporter and former prime minister, Kjell Magne Bondevik, has now traveled to Yemen’s neighboring Oman for talks with people close to the Houthi leadership. The aim of the talks is to increase the understanding that there must be a trial in the UK, and in that way further motivate the Houthis to extradite Abdulhak.
– Good contact
– We have had a very good contact with various groups in Yemen for many years, Magnussen says to Dagbladet.
– We experience that we are met with a high degree of goodwill from the Houthis, and that they, despite many people’s perception of them, are concerned with humanity and justice, he says.
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He says that they have outlined several potential possibilities for how to get Abdulhak extradited, but he does not want to go into detail on what they entail.
– We have a very clear ambition for this meeting. We go there to see what happens, and to try to further strengthen the collaboration, he says.
Magnussen emphasizes that this meeting was planned long before last week’s arrest of what is supposed to be one of Abdulhak’s relatives, but that this arrest now gives even more momentum to the talks.
ACCUSED: A woman in her 60s was arrested last week, suspected of having helped the murder suspect. She is now under some form of house arrest at this address. Photo: Magnus Paus / Dagbladet
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– The Ministry of Foreign Affairs does no worldly things
According to Magnussen, the reason why it is now Bondevik who talks to the Houthis, rather than official envoys from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), is the lack of commitment on the part of the MFA.
– The Ministry of Foreign Affairs does no worldly things in the Martine case, he says indignantly.
Bigger than I thought
– They say that they have worked with this for well over a decade, but that this is a British police case, but this is not about the police. This case is now about diplomacy to get the suspect extradited, says Magnussen.
– Many years of effort
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly denies that they are not working on the case.
The hunt for Farouk: A relative must have been taken
Norway has raised the issue with the Yemeni authorities repeatedly, most recently by the Foreign Minister in talks with his Yemeni counterpart in January this year. From the Norwegian side, we will continue to raise the matter in meetings with Yemeni authorities or other relevant actors who are believed to be able to contribute to the accused being brought to court in the UK, writes communications adviser Siri R. Svendsen in an e-mail to Dagbladet.
Svendsen emphasizes that when criminal acts are committed against Norwegians abroad, it is the country where the act takes place that is responsible for the investigation.
She further says that Norway assists in the joint measures the British ask them to participate in.
