[Exim] .forward file failes

Would be grateful if someone could help me with this:

Exim 3.12 on a debian potato(stable) system, running
as a daemon, no local network, all on one box.

Exim is configured to pass recieved mail from fetchmail
with the help of .forward to several inboxes.

This is my .forward file:
==========================
# Exim filter <<== do not edit or remove this line!

if foranyaddress $h_to:,$h_cc: (contains debian-user); then
save muttmail/debian-user

elif foranyaddress $h_to:,$h_cc: (contains exim-users); then
save muttmail/exim-user

elif foranyaddress $h_to:,$h_cc: (contains mutt-users); then
save muttmail/mutt-user

else
save muttmail/inbox

endif
==========================

Yet all incomming mail remains in exims spool directory
when using this forward file.
The syntax in .forward is drawn out of exims filter
documentation and I would be grateful if someone points
me to what is wrong.

The other thing is that 'eximstats' fails to work.
I thought using this program would help me to find
all lost mail (the mail fetchmail had reported of).
Just using eximstats without option or with -nr causes
eximstats to keep silent, no output no reaction and can
only be terminated by ^C.

At last changing .forward to this style helped:

if $h_to: contains debian-user or $h_cc: contains debian-user; then
save muttmail/debian-user




Robert