French authorities accused of cover-up by brother of killed vacationer

The French authorities have been accused of a cover up by the brother of a British tourist who was brutally shot dead in the Alps alongside his wife and mother-in-law in 2012, in a mystery that remains unsolved to this day.

Saad al-Hilli was gunned down alongside his wife, Iqbal Al-Hilli, 47, and her mother, Suhaila al-Allaf, 74 in September 2012. 

The al-Hilli’s two daughters – seven and four – miraculously survived.

A cyclist, Sylvain Mollier, 45, was also killed in the massacre in the isolated layby close to Lake Annecy, in eastern France.

Now, Mr al-Hilli’s brother Zaid al-Hilli has slammed the French investigation and claimed they went ‘the wrong way’ in their search for the killer, pointing fingers at him instead of local suspects.

He called the original investigation a ‘deception – an attempt to deceive us’.

The three fatal casualties were brutally shot three times each with at least one shot to the head and the case has remained a mystery for 12 years. 

During the bloodbath, the al-Hilli’s seven-year-old daughter, Zainab Al-Hilli, was left for dead after being shot in the shoulder and beaten around the head.

Her sister, Zeena Al-Halli, four, escaped by hiding underneath her mother’s legs and remaining motionless for eight hours in the back of the family’s BMW.

Police found her alive.

Now Mr al-Hilli has called for investigators to search for more local suspects after he was wrongly arrested in 2013 in a bid to finally close the case which has puzzled police for more than a decade – while accusing French officials of a cover up.

‘The original investigation was a deception, to attempt to deceive us,’ he said, according to The Times. ‘It was a local crime and has been covered up. 

‘They made allegations against me without any evidence. There was no attempt to look at a local motive right from the start.’

And progress could now be made after French police revealed earlier this week that DNA testing might be able to solve the baffling cold case.

Investigators from France’s elite cold case unit in the Paris suburb of Nanterre have ordered the ‘unsealing of the fragments’.

The clothes Sylvian Mollier and Zainab Al-Hilli were wearing on the fateful day are also going to be reexamined, along with some 10 cigarette butts found around the area. 

More than two dozen spent bullet casings were found near their British-registered BMW estate car. 

‘It is hoped that new examinations will uncover DNA traces,’ said an investigating source. ‘If yes, then they will be sent for comparison with a national genetic fingerprint file which lists more than four million fingerprints, to see if there is a match.’

DNA can be obtained from even a single fingerprint, and analysis has improved significantly since the Alps murders investigation was first launched, said the source.

Mr Mollier, a father of three, was wearing a helmet, cycling shoes, and sports clothing when he was killed, and all of it will be analysed by a specialist laboratory in the Paris area, along with Zainab’s clothes and shoes.

But it is the gun which holds the most hope of a breakthrough, as it is guaranteed to have been in direct contact with the killer.

Mr al-Hilli, 63, was arrested after Eric Maillaud, the state prosecutor, theorised that the al-Hillis were the target of a shoot-to-kill murder.

Mr Maillaud focused on a feud between the brothers over the inheritance of a £1million family home from their parents.

The brother of the British man gunned down admitted police at the time that police were even called after a fight broke out. 

Zaid al-Hilli said he was ‘pinned down’ by his younger brother Saad after the pair came to blows over the ownership of a family mansion in Claygate, Surrey which was left to them after the death of their parents.

He said the pair never spoke after the fight in 2011, instead instructing lawyers to act on their behalf as they tried to decide upon ownership of the detached mansion.

However, he was later released as their was insufficient evidence to charge him. 

Mr al-Hilli suggested that the cyclist, Mr Mollier was in fact the intended target and slammed prosecutors for wasting time by going after him. 

Mr Mollier had been involved in a dispute over a pharmacy business that was being transferred to his girlfriend, Claire Schutz, by her parents.

He shared a son with the 30-year-old heiress and had given up his job as a factory metalworker.

The brother of the tragic shooting victim said: ‘The original investigation was a deception, to attempt to deceive us. It was a local crime and has been covered up.’ The Times reported. 

He added that the allegations against him were not supported by any evidence and claimed the police had failed to look at any possible local motives, instead focusing on British and Iraqi links. 

Mr al-Hilli’s lawyer, William Bourdon, said it would probably take a ‘stroke of luck’ to find the killer. 

He said that people might be more open to talk with time and hoped that there would be justice for the families. 

An e-fit photo of a ‘prime suspect motorcyclist’ with a goatee beard was released in November 2013 and showed him in a distinctive black helmet, of which only about 8000 were made.

The image, mainly produced by two forest rangers who briefly spoke to the man, finally led to a first arrest of the biker in 2015.

Most of the Luger was removed from the scene, but small pieces of the grip plates were found near the BMW.

After the vicious attack, the then 7-year-old was found staggering around the BMW car on the side of the road  by a former RAF officer, Brett Martin. 

She later told French investigators that her family had been on holiday, and enjoying a drive through mountainous countryside by the village of Chevaline.

They got to the ‘edge of a small road riddled with potholes,’ and Zainab got out of the car with her father.

She recalled seeing cyclist Sylvian Mollier, and while other members of the family were getting out of the car ‘gunshots rang out.’

Zainab was ordered back into the car by her parents, but then the shooter grabbed the girl from behind.

‘She first of all thought it was her father, but then saw the white skin and bare hands of her attacker, and realised it couldn’t be him.

‘Zainab struggled but couldn’t get out of the grip. According to her, the killer was wearing long trousers and a leather jacket.’

Zainab was then pistol whipped and blacked out after suffering multiple facial injuries. She later made a full recovery and returned to the UK, where she now lives.

Mr Martin, who owned a holiday home in the Annecy area, at first thought he had stumbled across a road traffic accident, but then saw the bullet holes and casings lying on the ground.

Mobile phone reception was poor, so he had to cycle away to alert the police, after putting Zainab in the recovery position.

In a detailed interview last year, Mr Martin said: ‘In hindsight I realise I could have been the fifth victim.

‘About 200 or 300 metres from the scene, a motorcycle came very slowly past me. It was a black-clad motorcyclist in a full-face helmet and a Trans Alpine style of bike. I couldn’t see their face and couldn’t even say if they were male or female.

‘When they slowed right down, I thought they were going to stop and talk to me, but then they seemed to change their mind.

‘When you reflect, you think, that’s interesting, because at the very least, he or she would have passed the murder scene.

‘I nickname it my ‘luckiest unlucky day’. I think that if the trigger person had had a few more clips of ammunition, I wouldn’t be here.’

At the time, Mr Martin was staying in his holiday home in the nearby village of Lathuile.

He now trains pilots, and lives in Brighton with his wife, Theresa.

He also crossed paths with Mr Mollier – the cyclist who died – minutes before the killings, and passed a still unidentified car, believed to be a dark grey BMW SUV.

Mr Martin said: ‘Mollier came up the main road on a ­racing bike. We coincided at the intersection and I turned right ­immediately behind him.

‘I tried to keep up but his pace was much faster, so I eased off and he was out of sight within three or four minutes. About halfway up the hill, a 4×4 type of vehicle passed me at about 20 or 30mph.

‘I cursed under my breath because it was a narrow track and I had to put myself right to the edge of the gravel not to get clipped.

‘I was going, ‘You t*****s, you don’t have to drive that fast past a cyclist.’ That’s why it stuck in my mind.’

Describing the murder scene, Mr Martin said: ‘I saw a bike on the ground first and then I saw a child come from behind some ­shrubbery.

‘Zainab walked out on to the road and fell on to her face. I didn’t see ­Mollier until I got much closer because he was on the ground in front of the vehicle.

‘The BMW’s engine was at full power with its wheels spinning. I wasn’t in shock. With my ­aviation and military background, I just took the necessary actions.

‘My first thought was to get Zainab out of the way of the car in case it lurched forward. Her eyes were rolling and she was going in and out of consciousness. Her head was quite badly injured.

‘Then I moved Mollier away from the vehicle. I felt for his pulse and there was nothing there. I walked to the car and wanted to turn the ignition off, but the door was locked and I had to break the window. It was then that I noticed a bullet hole.

‘That’s when I switched my ­thinking from, ‘This is a car ­accident’ to, ‘Oh s**t, this is ­something more nefarious.’ ‘

Because he could not get a signal on his mobile, Mr Martin cycled down the hill before stopping a driver, who helped raise the alarm.

He was allowed to fly home to the UK, saying: ‘But they didn’t take the clothes I was wearing. I didn’t wash the clothes for a week or two but eventually I thought, ‘I’ve got to wash these as they’re my riding clothes.’

‘They subsequently asked for them, but I said, ‘A month has gone by, it has been washed.’ They said, ‘Oh, just give it to us.’

Mr Martin took part in a one-day reconstruction of the day of the murder last year, that included many other witnesses, but not Zainab or Zeena.

Mr Martin said: ‘I’d be happy to meet them one day, if they wanted to, absolutely. I feel desperately sorry for them — and everybody in the world wants this case to be cracked.’

While police are revisiting the case, alternative theories have been put forward in the intervening years.

A UK psychologist suggested the killings may have been completely random and the result of a ‘psychotic’ episode – and the killer was highly likely to be a local male aged between 30 and 40.

‘I envisage the theory that the perpetrator of the Chevaline attacks acted due to their own motives, entirely independent of the victims in this case,’ the report states.

It adds the killer was most likely either unemployed or in unskilled work, lived alone and could have a military background, La Depeche reports.

The psychologist concluded the killer may have had psychological troubles such as paranoia, and may have motivated by ‘hatred’ towards a certain community.

But the police are putting their faith in DNA testing. 

In January, a cold case dating back to 2008 was solved in France thanks to new DNA testing.

The body of Caroline Marcel, a 45-year-old jogger was found half submerged in a river, and the new testing methods matched DNA found on her corpse with DNA held in the national database, leading to the arrest of a known sex offender.