According to the Daily Mail, in March 2008, the remains of 23-year-old Martine Vik Magnussen were found in the basement of a luxurious mansion in London. The girl's body showed signs of rape and strangulation. The last person to see Magnussen alive was 20-year-old Farouk Abdulhak, son of billionaire Shaher Abdulhak, who studied with her at the same business school.
Before Magnussen's body was found, Farouk Abdulhak left Great Britain on a private plane and fled to Yemen to avoid punishment.
A new batch of published letters from Jeffrey Epstein showed that Shaher Abdulhak reached out to him for help. Epstein contacted PR consultant Ian Osborne, who, in turn, contacted Lord Ken Macdonald. Macdonald served as the Director of Public Prosecutions from 2003 to 2008.
Two months after Macdonald left office, he met with Shaher Abdulhak in Paris. Macdonald then flew to the capital of Yemen, where he held negotiations with Farouk Abdulhak.
From the letters of the elder Abdulhak to Epstein, it follows that he was counting on house arrest or community service as a sentence for his son. Shaher Abdulhak also offered the victim's family a settlement of 50 million dollars. Petter Magnussen, Martine's father, refused this deal.
During the investigation, Epstein's connections with Norwegian diplomat Terje Rød-Larsen and his wife Mona Juul, who was Norway's ambassador to London during a period described as “inexplicable inaction” in this case, also came to light. Epstein left the couple's children 5 million dollars each in his will.
Farouk Abdulhak, now 39, has never appeared in court. The only time he admitted his involvement in the crime was in a 2023 interview, calling what happened an accident that occurred during sex. Lord Macdonald justifies his trip to Yemen as an attempt to convince the suspect to voluntarily return to Great Britain. However, the victim's family and the British press consider his actions morally unacceptable.