Original subtitles

This programme contains some strong language

Where were you when you got the call that she was missing?

In my kitchen here, in this house.

It was a Saturday afternoon, I got a telephone call from her

flatmate, who said that she didn't come home last night.

And I said, "Well, she has just lost her telephone so she will turn up."

When she didn't do that, my worries started to grow.

Later in the day, she called back and said, "No,

"she's not coming home. I think you should come over."

So I was very depressed on the plane over, I started to cry

because I knew at the time that we would never see Martine again.

Martine Vik Magnussen was attacked

after a night out with friends.

The 23-year-old business student was raped and murdered.

Her body was found partially buried under rubble.

This is the prime suspect, Farouk Abdulhak,

the son of one of the richest men in Yemen.

I heard about the case when it happened.

My best friends are Norwegian. They asked me,

"Do you know a guy called Farouk Abdulhak from back home?

"A girl we know, Martine, has been killed in London."

And it was really shocking.

I was ashamed that the main suspect

was from the country I come from.

Farouk Abdulhak fled to Yemen

within hours of Martine's disappearance.

As a parent, that is the hardest moment of my life.

Very close, nearly physically, to be ripped apart.

I met with Odd Petter, Martine's father.

And he was so desperate for answers.

If Farouk Abdulhak is as innocent as he claims,

why doesn't he return to Britain and help police solve this murder?

Now we're 14 years on and that hasn't changed.

No journalist has ever been able to speak to Farouk -

not even the police.

There are only two people that know what happened that night,

and Martine isn't here to tell us, so it has to be Farouk.

We're from the same circle of people in Yemen,

and there's more than one avenue I can take to reach him for answers.

He's typing, he's typing!

Martine!

Martine!

Martine was a very enjoyable person to be with.

She was very social.

She was witty, had a great sense of humour.

She very soon got interested in horses.

I managed to get some sort of agreement with a local farmer

here where we hired a horse.

She actually took the horse one day and

rode into the schoolyard, of course without permission from anybody.

She was a human being of her own opinions.

She was extremely tough to argue with.

Martine was the explosion of a social talent and she was

so much adored and liked.

I was a little bit anxious about Martine studying in London,

the biggest playground in the world.

How are you?

Good to see you!

Fine, Yeah? Good.

How are you feeling?

I'm fine in a way but, of course, this is

the anniversary of Martine's passing, and we are going up to

Regent's University, where she studied, to put down flowers.

So this is a sad sort of day for me.

I'm going to leave you Yeah.

It's as if time has stood still for him

from the moment that Martine died.

You know, like his whole world is on pause, and the only thing

that's moving is him trying to get justice for his daughter.

I started trying to find Farouk three years after Martine's death.

The case wasn't moving, and his lawyer insisted

he was innocent of murder.

Farouk isn't just any Yemeni - he is the son of Shaher Abdulhak,

one of the richest men in Yemen

and close friends of the then president, Ali Abdullah Saleh.

We went to Yemen. We spent months looking for Farouk.

And then we received threats from the president at the time

to drop the story and leave.

And so we did.

We left because it just wasn't the right time to be poking.

It was really volatile at the time in Yemen.

I was more terrified of telling Odd Petter that we were no longer

going to work on this than I was of telling my editors

because I knew he had so much faith in me.

But the environment in Yemen has changed.

Farouk's father is dead now,

there are different players on the ground,

and the protection around Farouk has weakened.

It seems like he is more reachable than he ever was.

And so that gives me a lot of hope.

The ultimate goal is to be able to speak to Farouk myself,

to ask him first-hand what happened that night

and why the hell hasn't he handed himself over

to answer all the questions that all of us want answered.

I want to ask all of you, just tell me a bit about Martine.

You guys lived in the Yeah.

What was that like?

She was always up to something.

She could prank call you.

She could...

She would hide my stuff

and watch me look for it.

That's a good example! That's a good one.

Is there anything that kind of triggers a memory of Martine?

That Chanel perfume.

She would shower in it. Definitely the fragrance, yeah.

She loved life and I remember she said it often as well.

She just loved it.

She was this like blonde, curly, happy, bubbly...

Mm.

That particular night, she was just celebrating and dancing

and having fun.

She was just very happy.

is... ..Europe's biggest dancefloor.

It was Martine and I getting ready, we were going out.

We were just listening to music, borrowing each other's clothes.

Just having fun before the night out.

She texted Farouk.

They were just talking about where and when and who was going out

and who was not.

She was always very eager for us to meet him and to hang out with him.

She said he was a very funny guy with a good sense of humour.

My impression of him the first time I met him was that he was nice.

Maddox was the place to go on a Thursday,

so it was obvious that we were going there.

We all actually ended up going with our friends to Maddox

that night...

..and then Farouk just joined us.

I couldn't put my finger on it,

but he was different than the first time that I met him.

Uh, he was acting strange

because he was just standing next to Martine all night.

I think it was me or it was you who took a picture of the two of them

and he got quite upset.

I don't think she thought that he was being different.

She was talking about an afterparty, yeah, with him and some friends.

Taxi!

I talked to Nina when I woke up

and she said that Martine hadn't come home.

We didn't really think much of it to begin with

cos we sort of knew where she was.

I just thought that she... she had spent the night with

Farouk at the... She fell asleep at the afterparty.

She sometimes crashed there because it was closer to...

..the clubs and the bars and everything.

So it was just, instead of taking the taxi home,

she would just sleep at her friend's.

That night around 11, we got home and then we were really worried.

Yeah, when it was empty, Mm.

Thale and I went to the police station

and reported a friend missing

and...well, they didn't take it very seriously.

I think he said something like, "Oh,

"are you sure she's not just gone home with some bloke and whatever?"

Um, and I remember we took Mm.

Did you try calling Farouk?

Nonstop.

Leave me a message and I'll get back to you.

I noticed that he has updated his status to "Farouk is home alone..."

..so that was a big red flag.

I went to another police station with a friend of mine

and, while I was there, that's when I was told that Farouk had

actually deleted his Facebook...

..and something clicked with the police,

and they started to take us seriously from then on.

I got the call regarding this particular case

relatively early on the Sunday morning.

So I met the borough detective who was

leading on this at Farouk's apartment.

I just saw something that was tantamount to a crime scene -

objects that were in places that you wouldn't expect them to be,

and, primarily, we found a piece of Martine's clothing.

At this time, we're still trying to find her.

And so we decided, right, let's start from the inside,

let's work outwards, and let's search the building.

Immediately, you could recognise that the basement was not

just a completely sealed-off area to the residents of this flat.

It was just about understanding what rooms were there

and looking in every one.

And when they went into that room, I think, you know,

it was immediately obvious to them.

That's where we found her.

We knew that the family were actually in the air.

They were flying from Norway to the UK.

We decided, right, let's get some uniformed officers to meet them,

to take them aside, let's let them know straight away.

Coming in to see her lying there, with a red carpet over her,

just the face with some bruises on her nose,

that is...

..a situation beyond comprehension, really.

I knew that this was the last time I was going to see her.

So, after a while,

when we were sitting, the whole family around her,

the others left the room.

I couldn't leave Martine.

I just couldn't leave her.

So, I stayed on for five minutes...

..saying goodbye.

Our charge is for rape and murder,

so we are saying this was a sexual homicide.

Immediately, you're trying to understand suspects.

There was an outside inquiry team. "Right, you're on Farouk."

So, they followed the trail as far as they could.

They're then down at the airport. You know, they're looking.

There was a confirmation of seeing him going air-side,

and going. So, for us,

it was trying to establish, well, where is he now?

We know he definitely got the flight to Egypt,

and then we established the Yemen connection.

We were confident that that's where he was.

We believe he is in the Yemen.

That's a country that we don't have an extradition treaty with,

and as such, we're in a difficult position

where we need to work closely

with the Home Office and the Foreign Office

in order to try and secure his return to the UK.

Well, I hope that all Norwegians recognise the sincerity

and the seriousness with which this case is being treated

by the British authorities,

and the determination of us to find the culprit

and ensure that he's brought to justice.

When Farouk fled to Sana'a in 2008, Yemen was peaceful,

but a few years later, a revolution broke out,

and then war threw the country into chaos.

A group called the Houthis, who live in the far north of Yemen,

they started taking control of, like,

all the state institutions in Sana'a and taking over the city.

Yemen is split by a fierce civil war

between the internationally recognised government

backed by a Saudi-led coalition, and Houthi rebels allied with Iran.

The first air-strike dropped right over here.

Around six to seven minutes later,

the second air-strike dropped over here.

Sana'a, where Farouk was living, was heavily bombed.

The Saudi-led coalition's aim is to strike a strategic,

symbolic and financial blow to the Houthis.

Yemen's former President, Ali Abdullah Saleh,

was killed by the Houthi rebels, who are basically now in charge.

A fighter, Abu Ahmed, said,

"Thank God for the great victory

"and the end of the most corrupt leader in the Islamic world."

Farouk's family have all left the country,

but he's stuck there, and if he travels outside of Yemen,

he risks being arrested and sent back to the UK.

So much has changed in Yemen,

and things that blocked me last time are now gone.

I really want to speak to Farouk myself,

and there's more than one avenue that I can take to reach him.

So, first of all, I wanted to talk to you about what you know.

Like, do you speak to him? Are you friends with him?

Mm-hm.

Mm-hm.

Why? Why doesn't he go out?

Mm-hm.

No. I want to, but I just don't...

I don't know how, who to speak to.

I'm working on this story which you probably know about.

The main suspect in the murder case is Farouk Abdulhak.

Because I'm Yemeni, I've been trying to kind of get

more information on that side.

Wow. That's one of my family friends,

and he actually has been able

to get me Farouk's number.

But I guess now it's a question of what to do with it.

So, a friend of mine sent me a picture of Farouk.

It's, like, the latest picture of him out there.

Can you see him? Just there.

He's, like, bald now, with a beard, glasses.

And, apparently, this is from his dad's funeral.

He told me that Farouk has a Snapchat account,

so I'm going to try and find him because I have his number.

He's on it. Look!

He's bald with a beard,

exactly like the picture we just saw.

I can't believe it.

I think I should add him.

He accepted me!

Oh, my God!

He's typing.

He's typing.

He replied. I don't know what to say!

I'm going to say, "Are you from Yemen?"

He's typing.

He said, "No way, me too."

I've asked him where in Yemen. I don't know.

I'm just trying to keep the conversation going

while I decide what to do with this.

"I work in stock and cryptos."

And that's what that source told me.

He told me that the police called him

and told him that Farouk is working in cryptocurrency in Yemen

and that they're tracking it down.

He asked me how old I am,

and then I told him how old I am, and I was like, "How old are you?"

And he said 35, which is how old Farouk is.

Like, everything matches up

to it being really Farouk Abdulhak that's behind the Snapchat account.

He won't send me a photo.

It's just...

You know, it's crazy, number one,

but I also feel like this could be the closest we ever get to Farouk,

so it's definitely a breakthrough.

This is so surreal.

He just sent me...

Oh, my God. It's a barbecue.

When we first started chatting, Farouk was, like, talking nonstop.

I'd log into my Snapchat just to check,

and there would be tons of messages.

He was telling me everything.

The question is,

can I secretly record our conversations?

Because I know, if I ask him for an on-the-record interview right now,

he's going to shut down.

So, if I carry this on,

he might tell me what happened that night.

Whatever you film ought to be moving things forward,

so it ought to be, you know, proving the wrong-doing

that you want to expose or giving you sort of information

that is, you know, substantive to the case.

And you may have to talk about other things

to sort of get him Yeah.

Because secret filming is set up to catch somebody's behaviour

that is breaking the law or is in the public interest to expose.

So, because he's the only suspect in this murder case,

we can justify secretly recording,

as long as I tell him I'm a BBC journalist.

I mean, the plan is, I guess, to tell him who I am

and that I want to tell his story.

And then, hopefully, he'll carry on talking to me.

Sort of, you know, "I think we've built up trust...

"..but I don't want us to talk any further

"until you know exactly who I am."

I think it's quite important you say that.

I'm so nervous. I've got butterflies.

He's probably googling the shit out of me now.

He's not even typing.

So, we knew this would be a risk.

He's, like, completely out of the app now.

I feel like what upsets me the most about this is

what am I going to tell Odd Petter?

We got in touch with Farouk,

but we didn't even ask him about what happened that night.

How am I going to look him in the eye and tell him...?

Oh, my God. He's typing.

He said, "Shit happens in life for a reason. I don't know why."

More of today's news now.

The son of an Arab billionaire has denied killing a Norwegian student

who was found dead shortly after he left the country.

They've named him as Farouk Abdulhak

from the Middle East, who lived at the flat where her body was found.

He's thought to have been with her the night before she went missing,

and they both went to the same college.

Did she ever tell you guys

about him wanting to get in a relationship with her?

I think he tried to kiss her once. Yeah.

And she said, "No, we're just friends."

And she was like, "Oh, and he accepted it and it was fine."

Like, we all kept saying,

"This guy obviously has a crush on you,"

and she would be like, "Oh, no, he doesn't.

"Oh, it's not like that. We're just friends."

And then we didn't think any more of it.

He was her friend.

Yeah, she really cared about him. It was obvious.

She said that she felt bad for him

because he didn't seem to have a good family relationship,

like, grew up the way that she did,

with this really, like, close-knit, tight family.

So, she always sort of...

I don't know. She had a lot of empathy for him...

..because of that.

Farouk is the son of a billionaire businessman,

Shaher Abdulhak.

Police believe his family could be an important part

of getting him back to the UK.

Shaher Abdulhak, before this incident,

was this incredibly powerful man.

He wasn't just a rich Arab businessman.

He was one of the most powerful men in Yemen and in the Middle East.

You know, the Abdulhaks are like the Trumps of Yemen.

What I really want to understand

is if his father played a role in helping Farouk evade justice.

Everyone I've spoken to keeps telling me that

there's only one guy that was truly close to Shaher Abdulhak,

and that's Mustafa Noman.

There was a risk that, after I told Farouk who I am,

that he'd shut down and that we'd never speak again.

But I had this gut feeling that that wasn't going to happen.

I could tell that he wanted to keep talking.

So, we're just outside the office of Abdulhay Al Mejali,

who is this Jordanian businessman and really senior politician.

And he's also one of Shaher's really close friends,

he travelled a lot with him.

Police investigating the death of a Norwegian student have asked

the son of an Arab billionaire to return to the UK

Britain has no extradition treaty with Yemen,

meaning the investigation could now stray

into delicate diplomatic waters.

Miss Magnussen's friends hope Britain may be able to secure

a one-off agreement with Yemen

to send Mr Abdulhak back to face charges.

# Happy birthday to you! #

Listening on the news - that was the first time

I heard about the intention by the family to offer me

$50 million to put the case behind me.

And I made it absolutely clear that I'm not going to accept

any sort of monetary compensation

for the tragedy that happened to Martine.

Give me five minutes and I'll give you a call.

I just got home and I want to change my clothes and stuff.

Hello. Hi.

I'm good. How are you?

Yeah.

So, tell me, do you worry about your story,

like this story coming out in Yemen?

But what do you mean, like false news?

Why...?

What...but what's the alternative, Farouk? Come on.

Someone died, like, what's the other narrative?

What do you mean, what's their narrative?

What's the narrative that...? What do you mean by that?

They're never going to let it go.

Well, it's going to get answers for the family

and the family are going to keep pushing this until they get answers.

Martine's family.

I know, but I guess they want to hear what happened.

Yeah. But what about coming back?

Come on, Farouk, like...

So, when you say that you would do anything to give her father peace,

like, what do you mean? Like, would you talk to him?

Yeah.

Yeah.

I'll speak to you later.

Take care.

It really came across that the only person

he cares about is himself and how this is going to affect him.

He did not care at all about the fact that we're talking

about a murder here.

And it really was killing me that I couldn't say that to him,

you know, in this tone.

There's no there's no grey area. She's dead.

Her family lost her, and you ran away.

And they can't get answers because YOU won't answer up to it.

And, like, he just doesn't see any of that.

So this whole time, you know,

our main goal has been to try to get Farouk to answer our questions

on camera, right? That was the whole point of reaching out to him.

I want to give him an opportunity to answer my questions on the record,

knowing that he's on camera,

so that, not only can I see how he reacts to them face-to-face

but also I'll really be able to push him when he answers.

I used to drive down this road every single day to go to school

when I was younger, and now it's completely destroyed

because of the air-strikes that have fallen.

Um, it's just so sad to see it this way.

Look, this is one of the air-strikes that fell

during the beginning of the war.

Right in the middle of this bridge.

As soon as I went through passport control,

I was stopped by the Houthis, I was interrogated

and they made it very clear that I can't do any filming while I'm here.

That means anything I do in the country right now has to be

undercover and it just adds this layer of complexity

to what we're trying to do.

So, what are we going to do, are you still up for meeting or not?

Tell me what it is that makes you nervous.

How come?

Like, just always, or because I'm a journalist it makes you nervous?

Today has been such a frustrating day.

I've been texting Farouk about meeting him

and what I want to ask him is

whether he'll do a sit-down interview or not.

He then said that he would much rather meet me in his home

than in a public place,

and that if I wanted to come to his house, I could come right away,

but I just can't do that.

I can't go to his home.

I can't be in his house alone with him,

um, and I don't know if I'm going to be able

to convince him to meet me in a public place.

I just hope that coming here hasn't been for nothing.

Yemen, under the Houthis, has become incredibly difficult for him.

So many of the layers of protection that Farouk had are now gone.

Everyone around him fled and his father died too.

It means at any moment he can be taken out of his home

and handed over.

Hello.

So, I've just been thinking,

like, you know I know the family...

..of Martine. So...

Like, I met the father. And then he stayed in touch with me

because I'm like one of the only Yemenis he knew

and so whenever he was doing stuff in Yemen

he'd call me and tell me about it.

You know Mm-hm.

I know that, more than anything, he wants closure because he wants

to know what happened that night to his daughter

cos he just has no idea.

Then why don't you do that?

Then why don't you do that?

I mean, there must be some point where you start remembering.

I don't believe that you don't remember anything.

I feel like that's such an easy way out.

Come on, you must remember something.

You told me yourself you get flashbacks.

I was going to speak to you

about whether you want to do something, you know,

get your side of the story out.

So I just got a message from Farouk and he said he's not ready to meet.

He said that he's too shy and he's too nervous

and that he doesn't mind waiting a few more months

for us to get to know each other even more before he'll meet me,

and there wasn't much I could say.

I mean, it's so...frustrating

because I just feel like I don't have it in me

to speak to him for much longer any more, to be honest,

and this is just, it's been really difficult and...

..I feel like I've failed.

It's been a very interesting few days.

He's finally opened up about the case.

But ultimately, I want to see him on camera.

I want to ask him these questions to his face

and not to talk to him casually.

I want to be able to push back on the answers he gives,

because it's in the public interest for people to know what happened.

I just feel like everything we have been working on

has been leading up to this.

Obviously throughout, I wanted to get answers for Odd Petter,

but I didn't know what those answers were going to be.

We were working on getting him some sort of closure,

but will he ever really get closure? We're not giving him that.

Because Farouk's still in Yemen and...

Yeah.

Hi.

Hi, Nawal, come in.

Good to see you. Good to see you too.

Long time.

Yes, it's been a while, hasn't it?

So, as you know, for a really long time,

I've been working on trying to get an interview with Farouk

and I haven't been successful.

But what I have been able to do

is to find him on social media

and to talk to him over some time

and try and get you as many answers as possible.

And I guess one thing I want to explain

before you hear any of this

is that there were moments where I really wanted to get angry

about some of the things he says, but I couldn't

because I really had so much more I wanted to find out from him.

I perfectly understand the sort of narrow path

in which you have to manoeuvre here. I do understand.

OK, so I'm just going to play you one of our initial conversations.

The family are going to keep pushing this

until they get answers, Martine's family.

I don't know what answers they want to hear.

Nothing's going to bring their daughter back.

I know, but I guess they want Yeah.

I don't know.

There's nothing that's going to be able to change what happened.

Yeah, but what about coming back?

I don't know, it's too cold there. I don't like the weather.

I'm mad. I'm angry.

I mean, I was furious, so I can only imagine how you feel.

I'm furious, that's the word, yeah. Oh!

I'm going to get him, one way or the other.

OK.

The real fact is,

if I don't remember what happened, there's nothing really to say.

I feel like that's such an easy way out. Come on, you must remember something.

You told me yourself you get flashbacks.

Yeah, but they're flashbacks of scenes.

A picture does not tell you a story.

For a very long time, he went down the line

of just continuously saying that he can't remember.

Here was an admittance. Here, he admitted that he had flashbacks.

So I told him that basically,

at this point, we reached a point where I was pressuring him

and saying it's really hard for me to continue talking to him

if we don't talk about what happened that night.

So he said, "Like I told you,

"it was just a sex accident that went wrong,"

and then I said, "Come on, Farouk, talk to me", and he said, "Cocaine".

And then...

I know exactly how much they took

or what was found in Martine's body.

It was minor, in Martine's body.

Yeah, but I think what he's alluding to

is that he had taken a lot of cocaine that night.

He never denies his involvement.

No, not involvement, but he tries to portray it

as a mutual sort of accidental outcome of a sex act.

It's definitely been a sex act, but it has been forced upon Martine

as far as I can understand

from all the information I've gathered all through the years.

And that's why he's going back to the UK

to explain to the police what happened to Martine,

so that my family and myself can get some peace of mind.

For the last 14 years,

this has taken over her father's life completely.

He's given up everything.

He allowed it, yeah, that's his choice.

That's not fair, Farouk. What if it was your daughter?

You'd have done exactly the same. No?

I would have done something What would you have done?

I don't know.

I don't want to even think about it.

No, think about it.

What would you have done if it were you?

Probably something similar. Exactly.

My point is...

I'm thinking as a father, I only have one kid.

But he has other kids.

Shouldn't he be taking care of...

I don't want to talk about this.

OK. It's making me feel uncomfortable.

He has no empathy, obviously, with our family,

and he doesn't show any sort of remorse or anything.

Does anything we've spoken about today

make you more optimistic or hopeful about the case?

I'm optimistic

that we actually might have a solution in the longer term,

more so than before,

because we can talk to him.

I'm more than ever convinced

that there will be a solution to this case.

I just hope it will be on my terms, my ethical terms,

rather than anything else.

You know, if you don't stand up for justice

in a case of this nature, then what to stand up for?

It's true, yeah.

I can't imagine what it must be like

to lose your child

and to know that the only person accused of her murder

is living free.

My mission is to get Farouk

to put his foot back on British soil.

I will continue for the rest of my life.

And I'm going to succeed.