There was a good article posted here before
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Plot twist incoming. Was reading the paper over a pint earlier and there was an article on this. The brother who was initially arrested, and subsequently released without charge, has come out and said the actual target was the cyclist.
Must have been a cager
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If the target was the cyclist how would the brother have known that ?
The paraglider guy was arrested
Starting to sound like a bond film
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The cyclists was the hit
One article mentions a link to a gang of ex French secret service agents who went rogue. Seemed tenuous enough though.
The article from a few years back goes into his rationale for it iirc. Process of elimination stuff, i.e., nobody knew my brother was going to be in France, so he couldnât have been the target. Ropey logic.
Alps murder: Man arrested over 2012 shooting of family by Lake Annecy
Adam Sage, Annecy
Thursday January 13 2022, 12.00am GMT, The Times
The brother of a British businessman who was shot dead alongside his wife and mother-in-law in the French Alps hopes that an arrest made yesterday will solve the mystery of the murders.
Zaid al-Hilli, 61, was speaking after a breakthrough in the investigation into the killings in September 2012 of Saad al-Hilli, 50, his dentist wife, Iqbal, 47, and Suhaila al-Allaf, 74, who were killed in their BMW car. The coupleâs daughters, aged four and seven, survived the attack in which a French cyclist, Sylvain Mollier, 45, was also killed.
Last night the arrested suspect was confirmed to be the motorcyclist seen close to the scene of the shootings.
The suspect had previously been interrogated by police but insisted he had an alibi for being in the mountains, his lawyer said. Jean-Christophe Basson-Larbi told France 3 television: âThe position of this man is still the same â âI went to this region for a precise reasonâ. The weather was good and he took some roads that he didnât know because he didnât use a satnav. He perhaps crossed the paths of some motorists but he didnât cross the path of this poor family [the al-Hillis].â
Le Parisien reported that the motorcyclist had been brought to the scene of the crime during a reconstruction of the killings. The newspaper said police had uncovered âincoherencesâ in the account of the motorcyclist at that time.
Basson-Larbi said his client was âin the middle of a nightmareâ and accused investigators of âfabricatingââ a case. In a potentially significant development last night, a magistrate agreed to extend the suspectâs custody period.
Saad al-Hilliâs brother said: âI hope this helps finally solve who murdered my brother and his family. I believe Sylvain Mollier was the target. I think my brother and his family were killed to cover up the real target.
âThe French authorities said at the start they believed the answer lay in the UK so they ignored the evidence in France. I hope theyâre now following up the clues that have always been there.â
Mollier had been investigated as the potential primary target because of his involvement in a family dispute, having fathered a child with an heiress 16 years his junior, and his specialist work in the nuclear industry.
Zaid al-Hilli was arrested for conspiracy to murder in 2013 but was later told he would face no further action after police found there was insufficient evidence to charge him with a crime. He said that his nieces knew about developments in the investigation but were focusing on rebuilding their lives.
The man arrested at 8am yesterday is from Lyons, about 70 miles from Lake Annecy, where the al-Hillis were killed.
In March 2015 prosecutors said the motorcyclist had been identified as an innocent businessman from Lyons who had been in the mountains paragliding. French media reported at the time that the motorcyclistâs profile â95 per cent excludes him from the list of suspectsâ but that âfurther verificationsâ had to be carried out.
The al-Hillis, from Claygate, Surrey, had travelled to France for a camping trip. The murders have given rise to numerous lines of inquiry. One was that the family was targeted by a professional killer because of the fatherâs business interests, or because of a dispute relating to assets in Iraq. A second was that they had fallen victim to a random killing, possibly by a local person.
One of the few facts made public was that the killer had used a Luger PO6 7.65 pistol made for the Swiss army between 1909 and 1947.
Timeline
September 5, 2012: Saad a-Hilli, 50, his wife Iqbal, 47, and her mother Suhaila al-Allaf, 74, are found shot in the head in the family BMW in a car park on mountain above Lake Annecy. The body of a cyclist, Sylvain Mollier, 45, is found nearby. Saadâs daughter Zainab, then seven, is found with head and shoulder injuries. Her sister, Zeena, four, is unharmed after hiding beneath her dead motherâs legs in the back of the car for eight hours.
June 24, 2013: Saad al-Hilliâs brother Zaid, 61, from Surrey, is arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder but is released due to insufficient evidence.
February 18, 2014: Eric Devouassoux, a former police officer, is arrested after the issue of an artistâs impression of a man in a motorcycle helmet seen close to the murder scene. Police removed several guns from his home. He was released without charge.
March 6, 2015: The motorcyclist seen close to the scene is traced and ruled out of the inquiry as an innocent passer-by.
March 11, 2015: The prosecutor refuses to comment on claims that the investigation was focused on the grandmother after reports that spying software was found on her computer, and claims that she wanted to donate a large sum of money to her granddaughters.
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May 2015: The French prosecutor identifies the prime suspect as Patrice Menegaldo, an ex-French Foreign Legion soldier who had killed himself the previous year.
September 5, 2017: Police say they have ruled out all possibilities except a random killer.
February 2021: Claims that the killing could be linked to an organised crime gang of former officers from Franceâs foreign intelligence agency, the General Directorate for External Security, after the discovery of ammunition similar to that used in shooting.
September 30, 2021: Reconstruction of the murder is carried out by French police.
January 12, 2022: A suspect previously questioned by police is arrested in Lyon.
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