Jeffrey Epstein arranged for the UK’s former Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to provide legal advice to a wealthy friend whose son was wanted for the murder of a young woman in London.
The Telegraph.
Ken Macdonald, Baron Macdonald of River Glaven, was paid £20,000 to travel to Paris to advise Shaher Abdulhak, a Yemeni billionaire whose son was on the run.
Farouk Abdulhak is still wanted on suspicion of the murder and rape of Martine Vik Magnussen, a 23-year-old Norwegian woman whose body was found in the basement of a West End apartment block in March 2008.
Martine’s father, Odd Petter Magnussen, said it was “completely wrong” for Mr Macdonald to “take money” to advise the father of a suspected killer. At the time of Martine’s murder, Lord Macdonald was Attorney General.
Macdonald resigned from his position six months after the murder. As Magnussen tells the newspaper:</p
“A former attorney general should not be accepting money to advise the father of a suspect. That is absolutely not right. This is about legal neutrality. I am shocked, but not surprised. This is the way both Epstein and Abdulhak’s father operated.”
Macdonald claims that he has never met Epstein in person, only speaking to him once on the phone.
Martine met Farouk Abdulhak at a nightclub and was persuaded to go home with him. Twenty-four hours later, Martine’s body was found and Farouk had already fled the country.
All attempts by the British government to co-operate with the Yemeni authorities failed.
Macdonald himself travelled to Yemen and met the suspect. He allegedly asked him to return to the UK, but Farouk refused. A few years later, Epstein got involved in the case.
E-mails and correspondence in the Epstein files show that Epstein spoke to Lord Macdonald in early June 2012.
Two weeks later, on 20 June, the former attorney general travelled to Paris to meet Shaher Abdulhak, the richest man in Yemen.
The conversation between Lord Macdonald and Epstein was brokered by Ian Osborne, who is considered a “fixer” for the rich and powerful.
The collusion between a British public prosecutor and Epstein in such a serious case joins the queue of potential scandals in the so-called Epstein files. Macdonald himself claims that he was only trying to get a suspected murderer to turn himself in to British police.
Shaher Abdulhak, Farouk’s father, died in 2020. He had made a fortune selling sugar, soft drinks, weapons and oil. He was a close friend of the then president of Yemen. The Epstein files show that he also had regular contact with Jeffrey Epstein.