Exclusive:
Zaid Al-Hilli has spoken out as cold case officers revisit the murder of his brother Saad, 50, who was shot dead at the wheel of his BMW while on holiday in September 2012
The brother of a Brit murdered with his family in the French Alps has demanded a probe into police who bungled the investigation.
Zaid Al-Hilli spoke out as cold case officers revisit one of the century’s most sensational unsolved murders. His brother Saad, 50, an Iraq-born satellite engineer, was shot dead at the wheel of his BMW while on holiday in September 2012. Also blasted twice in the head were dentist wife Iqbal, 47, and her mum Suhaila, 74.
The couple’s seven-year-old daughter was left for dead while her four-year-old sister survived by hiding under her mother. A French cyclist on the remote mountain road near Lake Annecy was also shot execution-style. Now Saad’s brother wants an investigation into a “cover-up” by “diabolical” local police.
Zaid – named by French police as a suspect himself – said: “The beginning of the investigation was botched up and not really taken seriously. Look at the mistakes and work out whether they were just mistakes or cover-ups. For me it is the only path to solving what happened. The new cold case investigators, who I think are more independent and crucially not from the local area, should talk to the people who did the investigation at the beginning.”
The family were given hope when the cold case unit in Paris held a reconstruction in October. Lawyers and police chiefs attended at a disused air base outside Paris. But Zaid revealed that the reconstruction drew blanks – as did a forensic analysis of clothes and 10 cigarette butts found at the scene.
Zaid, 65, an accountant, said: “It was a shame, what has happened previously has made it very difficult for these people to find out the truth. The way they treated the crime scene was truly diabolical. It was appalling that they didn’t do a reconstruction at the time. Why are others having to do one 11 or 12 years on? I question whether more important pieces were destroyed and never looked at, which could’ve given us hope all those years ago.”
Prosecutors admitted one forensics officer “accidentally contaminated” crime scene material with his own DNA, while officers trampled the scene before it was analysed. Zaid has hired top French lawyer William Bourdon to deal with any developments. And the case is now being looked at by a new charity set up by a former police chief, called the Association for Victims of Unsolved Crimes.
Benoît de Maillard and his team are scrutinising 391 cold cases. Zaid added: “We welcome any new investigation that can offer something new. We need it.”
His brother’s family, from Claygate, Surrey, were found in a forest car park in Chevaline, the BMW estate’s engine still running. The killer had shot Saad’s daughter Zainab, seven, in the shoulder then beat her with the gun when he ran out of bullets after firing 21 in all. All she could tell investigators was that she saw “one bad man”.
Her sister Zeena, four, was not found under her dead mum for eight hours because police were reluctant to disturb the bodies. The next year UK cops arrested Zaid on suspicion of conspiracy to murder after it emerged the brothers had fallen out over a parental will. Six months later he was told he would face no action. There were also theories Saad was a spy because of his defence-related job or that his killing was linked to his dad’s life in Iraq.
Last year the senior Surrey detective on the case told a Channel 4 documentary he believed cyclist Sylvain Mollier, 45, a local dad of three, had been the intended victim. Ex-DCI Mark Preston says he was shot first and last, with more bullets than the others – and the Al-Hillis had just gone for a spontaneous drive while staying at a campsite nearby.
Zaid added: “There were huge mistakes. It’s a fact they left the crime scene open for contamination. It’s a fact they opened the area around the scene 48 hours after. Why did they open it before they investigated? I can’t understand it. I fear it is all a deception.
“To this day I’m so angry with how the investigation has been conducted. It was a local crime covered up by local police, I believe. I think they knew a lot more than they were telling us. The way they handled it was very mysterious. I feel that the new investigating judges are more independent. They are not from the area but they have come on board 12 years later. An investigation into those who supposedly ‘investigated’ could be our only way to answers.”
