Arrest made in unsolved 2012 gun murder of British trio in French Alps

Saad al-Hilli, 50, his wife, Ikbal, 47, her mother Suhaila al-Allaf, 74, and a French cyclist were shot dead on a road near Annecy.
French police guard the road to the murder scene near Annecy in September 2012 (Chris Ison/PA)
PA Archive
Margaret Davis12 January 2022

An arrest has been made in the unsolved murders of three British family members and a French cyclist who were gunned down in the Alps in 2012.

The prosecutor in Annecy France, said a person had been taken into custody on Wednesday morning in relation to the investigation.

Saad al-Hilli, 50, his wife, Ikbal, 47, and her mother Suhaila al-Allaf, 74, were shot dead on a road near Annecy in eastern France on September 5, 2012.

Their two young daughters survived the horror, but 45-year-old cyclist Sylvain Mollier was also killed.

The victims were discovered on a remote road in eastern France (Chris Ison/PA)
PA Archive

The bodies of Iraqi-born engineer Mr al-Hilli and his dentist wife, who lived in Claygate, Surrey, were discovered along with that of Mrs al-Hilli’s mother in their BMW on a remote forest route.

In a bizarre twist, Mrs al-Hilli’s previous husband, an American dentist named only as James T, died from a heart attack on the same day as the couple, but police said there was no link to the murders.

Suspects previously arrested in connection with the case include an Iraqi prisoner known as Mr S who was claimed to have said he had been offered “a large sum of money” to kill Iraqis living in the UK.

Mr al-Hilli’s brother, Zaid, was also arrested on suspicion of murder in 2013 but was later told he would face no further action after police found there was insufficient evidence to charge him with a crime.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in