Brother of British French Alps murder victim arrested

French investigators said on Monday that the brother of a British-Iraqi man shot dead with three other people in the French Alps last year has been arrested in Britain in connection with the murders.

Reuters/Neil Hall

Zaid al-Hilli, 54, was arrested in Surrey, near London, on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder.

His brother Saad al-Hilli, Saad's wife Iqbal and her mother Suhaila al-Allaf were shot dead in the family's BMW estate car at a beauty spot near Lake Annecy on September 5 last year.

The couple's two young daughters survived the shooting, one of them by huddling next to her dead mother's body for hours until police found her.

A French cyclist, Sylvain Mollier, was also shot dead, but investigators believe he was not a target and was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"We felt there were enough reasons to take him into custody," Annecy prosecutor Eric Maillaud said after British police announced Zaid al-Hilli’s arrest.

"We need to ask him questions about his schedule, his relationship with his brother and the family inheritance."

British police said they had arrested a 54-year-old man in connection with the murders in an early-morning "pre-planned arrest" in Surrey, where the al-Hilli family lived, but did not officially name him.

Surrey police said: "The 54-year-old man was detained at an address in Chessington, Surrey, at around 7.30 am and is currently in police custody where he will be interviewed."

Earlier this month, Maillaud revealed that police were looking into telephone calls to Romania made from Zaid al-Hilli's phone.

Maillaud said Romanian authorities had been asked to help establish who he was calling but stressed on that occasion that the potential Romania link was not being treated as a major new lead.