A 48-year-old man arrested in connection with the killings of a British engineer and his family in France is believed to be a former policeman.
Saad al-Hilli and his wife Ikbal, from Claygate in Surrey, and her mother Suhaila al-Allaf, who lived in Sweden, were all fatally shot on a remote forest road in Chevaline near Annecy on September 5, 2012. Local cyclist Sylvain Mollier was also murdered.
French police arrested a 48-year-old man yesterday, from the Haute-Savoie region of France, in connection with the killings.
The man is a former policeman who lived close to the scene of the murders in Chevaline. Annecy prosecutor Eric Maillaud said the arrest followed the release in November of an artist’s impression of a motorcyclist seen near the murder scene.
Surrey Police said the arrest came from a line of inquiry in France and not as a result of the investigation carried out in the UK.
The scene of the murders in 2012 was discovered by cyclist Brett Martin, who found Iraqi-born Mr al-Hilli, 50, his 47-year-old dentist wife and her elderly mother blasted to death in their BMW.
The al-Hillis’ first-born daughter Zainab was shot in the shoulder and beaten, but survived. Her then-four-year-old sister Zeena lay hidden under her mother’s body. Since the deaths, speculation has surrounded whether the shooting was linked to the al-Hillis’ native Iraq, or Saad al-Hilli’s work as a satellite engineer.Last month Mr al-Hilli’s brother Zaid al-Hilli, who was arrested in connection with the shooting, had his bail cancelled by Surrey Police after the force decided there was not enough evidence to charge him with a crime. The al-Hilli brothers were alleged to have been locked in an inheritance dispute centred on the £825,000 home in Claygate, Surrey.