French police have arrested a suspect in the case of the
murders of the Iraqi-born British engineer Saad al-Hilli and three others in
the French Alps in September 2012.
The breakthrough came after police issued an efit of a man
wearing a motorcycle helmet.
BFM-TV, which broke the story, reported that the 48-year-old
man, who can be questioned by police for 48 hours, is from the Alpine area
where the murder took place.
Eric Maillaud, the Annecy prosecutor, said a suspect
matching the efit had been "actively sought by police".
Al-Hilli, who was staying in Annecy with his family, was
shot dead on 5 September 2012 after parking his BMW in a layby on a wooded road
near Chevaline. His wife and mother were also shot dead.
One of his daughters was wounded but the other miraculously
survived by hiding under her mother's skirt. The body of a passing French
cyclist, Sylvain Mollier, was found nearby.
Police were puzzled by the weapon used by the killer: an
antique 7.65mm Luger P06 handgun, issued to the Swiss army and police in the
1920s and 1930s.
French police made the arrest following witness accounts and
descriptions of a man seen near the scene of the killings. The witnesses came
forward after French authorities released an artist's impression of a
motorcyclist who was seen in the area between 3.15pm and 3.40pm shortly before
the four murders.
The prosecutor suggested that there may be other arrests.
"This arrest, which may not be the only one, is the fruit of witness
statements taken notably after the release on 4 November 2013 of the e-photo of
a motorcyclist seen near the scene of the crime, and actively sought by
investigators," Maillaud said.
However, French media reports said police remained cautious
as to the possible involvement of the person taken into custody on Tuesday. They
said he may be able to shed light on the murders without being a direct suspect
in the killing himself.
Al-Hilli's brother Zaid was arrested by British police but
released from bail last month when Surrey police deemed there was not enough
evidence to charge him with a crime.
The 54-year-old, from Chessington, Surrey, said he was
relieved, but French investigators said they still had "many
questions" to ask him.
The al-Hilli brothers were alleged to have been locked in an
inheritance dispute centred on the £825,000 home in Claygate, Surrey, where
Saad and his family lived after their mother died from a heart attack in 2003.
Zaid, who inherited half the property, claimed that in 2011
his brother began to demand his share of the house "there and then" and
pinned him down during a row. The two men never spoke again except through
lawyers, but Zaid denied rumours that he had threatened to kill his brother.
He said he knew little about a Swiss bank account containing
the proceeds from their father's business in Iraq and would not comment on
claims that he attempted to access it using an expired card or tried to fake
their father's will.
On Tuesday, the Surrey force said: "Surrey police can
confirm that an arrest has been made in France today in connection with the
murders of four people near Annecy, southern France in September 2012.
"The arrest has resulted from a line of inquiry in
France and is not as a result of the investigation carried out in the UK."
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