http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/28/saddam-hussein-alps-killing-link
Saddam Hussein linked to Alps killings
The former Iraqi dictator deposited a huge sum of money in a Swiss bank account belonging to the father of murdered British engineer Saad al-Hilli, it has been claimed
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Saddam Hussein has been linked to the recent Alps killings of a British engineer and members of his family. Photograph: Ina/EPA
Saddam Hussein deposited £840,000 in a Swiss bank account belonging to the father of the British engineer murdered with his wife and mother-in-law in the Alps, it has been claimed.
Saad al-Hilli, 50, has been linked to the former Iraqi dictator through his father Kadhim, who was once close to the tyrant's Ba'ath party but fled his homeland for Britain in the 1970s. The money was reportedly deposited into an account in Geneva, an hour's drive from where the massacre took place on 5 September at a remote spot near Lake Annecy in eastern France.
Hilli, his wife, Iqbal, and his mother-in-law were shot while his seven-year-old daughter, Zainab, was left badly injured and her four-year-old sister, Zeena, deeply traumatised. A French cyclist was also shot dead and the motive for the killings remains a mystery.
A French police source revealed that the money had been traced to Hussein by the German intelligence agency, the BND, according to Le Monde. Agents routinely monitored cash transactions with Baghdad as Germany did more business with the regime than any other country.
An intelligence source in Munich was quoted as saying: "They know the money trail, and they know how to follow it. They have spent decades monitoring money transactions between the west and Iraq. The BND is the first port of call in such circumstances."
The BND said: "We do not comment on operations."
The Le Monde story was published under the headline "The potential links between the al-Hillis and Saddam Hussein."
It said: "According to a French police source, the German secret service informed the gendarmerie's anti-terrorist branch that there were links between the al-Hilli family and Saddam Hussein's fortune. The tensions began after Saad al-Hilli's father [Kadhim] was struck off the list of beneficiaries of the former Iraqi dictator."
When Kadhim died he left behind his considerable wealth in a will.
Le Monde identifies the money in the Swiss bank account – and not the inheritance – that may have been at the centre of the conflict. Swiss investigators discovered the secret account earlier this month, but according to Le Monde they didn't make the link to Iraq.
and the story is still clear as mud.....
http://www.theweek.co.uk/news-opinion/annecy-shootings/49682/saad-al-hilli-killing-was-french-cyclist-primary-target
Saad al-Hilli killing: was French cyclist the primary target?
Al-Hilli uncle attacks French prosecutor for taking narrow view as new hypothesis emerges
A RELATIVE of Saad al-Hilli, shot dead with his wife and mother-in-law in the woods near Lake Annecy on 5 September, has attacked the French prosecutor for spending too much time looking for motives in the Surrey family's background rather than focusing on what actually happened that day.
Dr Ahmad al-Saffar, the uncle of al-Hilli's dentist wife, Iqbal, told the Radio 4 Today programme this morning that by focusing on the family, Eric Maillaud had failed to find any evidence pointing to the identity of the murderer. It was "unfortunate" that the prosecutor was "dismissing all other lines of investigation," he said.
Al-Saffar also criticised Maillaud for his comment, made less than a week after the al-Hilli family were found dead, that solving the crime might take "two, three or ten years". Al-Saffar said it was "not fair" of Maillaud to jump to this conclusion so early in the investigation.
Al-Saffar is not the only one frustrated by Maillaud's intransigence.
A reporter for Le Parisien, Jean-Marc Ducos, claimed on Friday that, as the result of a ballistic report, police were working on a new hypothesis that it was the French cyclist Sylvain Mollier who was shot dead first in the 5 September massacre outside the village of Chevaline.
A reporter for Le Parisien, Jean-Marc Ducos, claimed on Friday that, as the result of a ballistic report, police were working on a new hypothesis that it was the French cyclist Sylvain Mollier who was shot dead first in the 5 September massacre outside the village of Chevaline.
This would appear to support a theory, first published by The Week within days of the murder, that Mollier was the killer's primary target the al-Hillis were shot dead only because they had witnessed his murder.
Ducos said there was also forensic evidence, backed verbally by seven-year-old Zainab al-Hilli, who survived being pistol-whipped by the killer, that Saad al-Hilli was outside the family car with Zainab when the shooting started.
According to The Daily Telegraph, picking on Le Parisien's hypothesis, Saad Al-Hilli then leapt into his BMW estate car and, trying to reverse away, got stuck in the mud. The killer shot Saad, Iqbal and her mother, left Zainab for dead, and never noticed Zainab's younger sister, Zeena, hiding in the back of the car.
The killer then returned to the cyclist and shot him again. Forensics reports suggest that at some stage the killer moved the body of the cyclist, which he laid out on the ground on the left side of the car. This, said Ducos, suggested that the killer was not a professional hitman as had been previously thought.
However, the hypothesis laid out by Ducos was immediately refuted by Maillaud, who dismissed it as "pure invention".
This has led to angry tweets from Ducos, who says he stands by his source. In an email to The Week, Ducos claims the hypothesis is "probable" and makes the point that Maillaud has not denied that Saad al-Hilli and his daughter were outside his car when the shooting started, nor that Mollier's body was moved, nor that the evidence points to a non-professional killer.
If Mollier was the primary target, it would help explain the investigators' inability - after six weeks of inquiry - to find any reason for someone to assassinate the Surrey engineer, his wife and mother-in-law, leaving their two young daughters orphans.
It will also require the French invesigators to re-address fully the life and background of Sylvain Mollier, a 45-year-old father of three who worked for Cezus, which produces zirconium, the metal used for nuclear fuel cladding. Was Mollier leading a double-life, the Daily Mirror asks? ·
http://www.france24.com/en/20121022-france-alps-chevaline-annecy-victims-uncle-slams-french-detectives-alps-murder-probe-police
A relative of the British-Iraqi family shot dead in the Alps last month criticised the French police's murder investigation in an interview broadcast on Monday.
Ahmed al-Saffar, the uncle of the woman shot dead along with her husband, her mother and a cyclist, said investigators had concentrated on the possible involvement of the family while other lines of inquiry had been dismissed.
"I think the French prosecutor also focused on the family without presenting any evidence. It's kind of wild speculation," he told BBC radio.
He said that speculation that the murders were motivated by a family feud had increased relatives' suffering.
"What is unfortunate is what comes out in the media from the French prosecutor focusing on the family and dismissing all other lines of investigation, this has made actually a great damage to the family," he said.
Ahmed al-Saffar, the uncle of the woman shot dead along with her husband, her mother and a cyclist, said investigators had concentrated on the possible involvement of the family while other lines of inquiry had been dismissed.
"I think the French prosecutor also focused on the family without presenting any evidence. It's kind of wild speculation," he told BBC radio.
He said that speculation that the murders were motivated by a family feud had increased relatives' suffering.
Saffar's niece Iqbal al-Hilli, 47, was found dead along with her 50-year-old husband Saad, her mother and French cyclist Sylvain Moller.
'Investigation needs a professional approach'
Their bodies were found in their BMW car near the village of Chevaline. Their seven-year-old daughter Zainab was seriously injured in the attack and her four-year-old sister Zeena survived by hiding under her mother's skirts.
Saffar said he could not think why the family were targeted.
"I personally don't believe in any of these lines and I think the French prosecutor should make a professional investigation and a profesional approach and don't dismiss any part or any line.
"Just focusing on the family, it is not fair and it is not the right thing."
His niece was a "very lovely girl" who was "devoted to her family", and she and her husband were a perfect couple, he said.
Their daughters have been told what happened to their parents, Saffar said.
"They are very traumatised," he said.
The family, who lived in Surrey, southwest of London, were on a camping holiday when they were attacked.
The French newspaper Le Parisien reported on Friday that ballistics tests showed that the cyclist, who was previously thought to have been killed because he stumbled onto the murder scene, was the first to be shot.
But Eric Maillaud, the prosecutor in charge of the case, told AFP on Saturday that police do not know which of the four victims was killed first.
'Investigation needs a professional approach'
Their bodies were found in their BMW car near the village of Chevaline. Their seven-year-old daughter Zainab was seriously injured in the attack and her four-year-old sister Zeena survived by hiding under her mother's skirts.
Saffar said he could not think why the family were targeted.
"I personally don't believe in any of these lines and I think the French prosecutor should make a professional investigation and a profesional approach and don't dismiss any part or any line.
"Just focusing on the family, it is not fair and it is not the right thing."
His niece was a "very lovely girl" who was "devoted to her family", and she and her husband were a perfect couple, he said.
Their daughters have been told what happened to their parents, Saffar said.
"They are very traumatised," he said.
The family, who lived in Surrey, southwest of London, were on a camping holiday when they were attacked.
The French newspaper Le Parisien reported on Friday that ballistics tests showed that the cyclist, who was previously thought to have been killed because he stumbled onto the murder scene, was the first to be shot.
But Eric Maillaud, the prosecutor in charge of the case, told AFP on Saturday that police do not know which of the four victims was killed first.
http://www.france24.com/en/20121020-french-cyclist-may-first-shot-not-last-hilli-mollier-alps-murder-ballistics-test
A French cyclist killed along with three members of a British family on holiday in the Alpine region may have been the first of the victims to have been shot, according to a French media report based on a ballistics test.
Sylvain Mollier was thought to have been shot simply because he stumbled on last month's attack on the British-Iraqi family, but a ballistics report seen by reporters at French daily Le Parisien revealed that he may have been the first person shot, before the killer turned on the al-Hilli family, the website of paper reported Friday.
Saad al-Hilli, 50, his wife Iqbal, 47, and her mother Suhaila al-Allaf, 74, were all shot and killed.
‘Claims not serious’
But Lieutenant Colonel Benoît Vinnemann, who is leading the inquiry into the murders, denied the press reports. “The order of the deaths of the four victims have not yet been determined,” he told AFP on Saturday.
Sylvain Mollier was thought to have been shot simply because he stumbled on last month's attack on the British-Iraqi family, but a ballistics report seen by reporters at French daily Le Parisien revealed that he may have been the first person shot, before the killer turned on the al-Hilli family, the website of paper reported Friday.
Saad al-Hilli, 50, his wife Iqbal, 47, and her mother Suhaila al-Allaf, 74, were all shot and killed.
‘Claims not serious’
But Lieutenant Colonel Benoît Vinnemann, who is leading the inquiry into the murders, denied the press reports. “The order of the deaths of the four victims have not yet been determined,” he told AFP on Saturday.
Annecy state prosecutor Eric Maillaud also stressed that the order of the killings was unknown. “No serious investigator is capable of telling,” he told AFP Saturday.
He did confirm that Zainab al-Hilli, the elder daughter of the two survivors, had left the car during the attack, “but for what reason we have no idea,” he said.
Unprofessional job
The Parisien report detailed that father Saad Hilli was first shot outside the car and then finished off after he got back in the car and tried to drive off.
The reconstruction suggested that the killer had moved around a lot in an apparently disorganised manner, going from one victim to another and then back again, which would undermine the theory that a professional killer had been at work.
Seven-year-old Zainab al-Hilli nearly died after being shot in the shoulder and hit repeatedly around the head by the attacker. She has been unable to help the enquiry in any meaningful way.
Her four-year-old sister survived by sheltering under her mother's skirt in the back of the family's BMW estate car.
He did confirm that Zainab al-Hilli, the elder daughter of the two survivors, had left the car during the attack, “but for what reason we have no idea,” he said.
Unprofessional job
The Parisien report detailed that father Saad Hilli was first shot outside the car and then finished off after he got back in the car and tried to drive off.
The reconstruction suggested that the killer had moved around a lot in an apparently disorganised manner, going from one victim to another and then back again, which would undermine the theory that a professional killer had been at work.
Seven-year-old Zainab al-Hilli nearly died after being shot in the shoulder and hit repeatedly around the head by the attacker. She has been unable to help the enquiry in any meaningful way.
Her four-year-old sister survived by sheltering under her mother's skirt in the back of the family's BMW estate car.
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