The two were students at Regent’s Business School in central London and part of the same young international social set.
Yet a post-mortem examination found that Ms Vik Magnussen died from “compression to the neck” and her body had 43 cuts and grazes that were said to be typical of an assault or struggle.
In a series of text messages exchanged with a BBC reporter investigating the case, Abdulhak, who was 21 at the time of the death, wrote: “I deeply regret the unfortunate accident that happened. I regret coming [to Yemen]. Should have stayed and paid the piper.”
Asked for clarity about the circumstances of Vik Magnussen’s death, Abdulhak said: “It was just an accident. Nothing nefarious … Like I told you just a sex accident gone wrong.”
He went on to tell the reporter he was unable to recollect exact details because of his cocaine use that night. “No one knows because I could barely piece together what happened,” he said.
Vik Magnussen had been celebrating her end-of-term exams with friends and left the Maddox nightclub in Mayfair with Abdulhak at around 3am. At some stage, they returned to his flat in Great Portland St.
Abdulhak flew out of Britain the following day, around 24 hours before Vik Magnussen’s semi-naked body was discovered.
The UK does not have an extradition treaty with Yemen.
Abdulhak is the son of Shaher Abdulhak, who ran a business empire that spanned the Middle East. He was the richest man in Yemen at the time, counting Ali Abdullah Saleh, the former president of Yemen, among his close friends. Shaher Abdulhak died in 2020. The former president died three years earlier.
Not prepared to return to the UK
Speaking to the BBC reporter on a phone call, Abdulhak said he was not prepared to return to the UK, adding: “It’s too cold there. I don’t like the weather ... I don’t think justice will be served.
“I find that the criminal justice system there is heavily biased. I find that they will want to make an example of me being a son of an Arab, being … a son of someone rich.”
Vik Magnussen’s father, Odd Petter Magnussen, told the BBC: “[Abdulhak] 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 on Martine, as far as I can understand from all the information I’ve gathered all through the years.”
He added that Abdulhak needed to explain to police in the UK what happened to Vik Magnussen, “so that my family and myself can get some peace of mind”.
The BBC also spoke to a close friend of Mustafa Norman, Abdulhak’s father, who revealed that the former president of Yemen met the student when he left the UK.
Norman, a former Yemeni diplomat, said: “Ali Abdullah Saleh was sympathetic to Shaher, because they’d had a relationship for so long.
“He made sure he didn’t have to hand the boy over. He also saw Farouk after the incident. Ali Abdullah Saleh wanted to reassure him that nothing would happen to him.”
Diplomatic row
After Vik Magnussen’s death, Scotland Yard said Abdulhak was one of Britain’s most wanted men. David Miliband, then foreign secretary, personally intervened, promising to do all he could to ensure the “shocking” case was resolved.
But a one-off extradition request was turned down by the Yemeni foreign minister in February 2009, prompting a diplomatic row.
