LONDON: The brother of a British-Iraqi man shot dead with three other people in the French Alps last year was arrested in Britain yesterday in connection with the murders, French prosecutors said.
Zaid Al Hilli, 54, was detained in Surrey, near London, on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder in what British police said was a “pre-planned arrest”.
His brother Saad Al Hilli, Saad’s wife Iqbal and her mother Suhaila Al Allaf were killed in the family’s BMW estate car in a car park at a beauty spot near Lake Annecy on September 5 last year.
A French cyclist, Sylvain Mollier, was also gunned down, although investigators believe he was not a target and was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The Al Hillis’ two young daughters survived the shooting, one of them by huddling next to her dead mother’s body for hours until police found her.
Zaid Al Hilli was taken to a police station after the early-morning arrest in Surrey, where his murdered brother also lived.
Eric Maillaud, the prosecutor for the French city of Annecy, said: “We felt there were enough reasons to take him into custody.
“We need to ask him questions about his schedule, his relationship with his brother and the family inheritance.”
He said searches were being carried out at Zaid Al Hilli’s home and the golf and leisure company where he works.Investigators have been looking at whether a possible feud over the estate of the brothers’ father could lie at the heart of the case. AFP
