Did killer of al-Hilli family strike 26 years earlier in Brittany murder of UK couple?
Retired French detective seeks inquiry into possible link between al-Hilli murders and 1986 killings
A RETIRED detective has asked French police to investigate a possible link between the al-Hilli murders and the deaths of a British couple in similar circumstances 26 years earlier.
The Sunday Telegraph can disclose that Pascale Huche has contacted French gendarmes to tell of what he believes are striking parallels between the execution-style killings of the British-Iraqi family in 2012 and another unsolved murder case in Brittany in 1986.
Mr Huche has also given the al-Hilli murder squad the name of a suspect in the Brittany case who was never prosecuted, but who did later serve time for a triple attempted murder in Belgium.
The detective was involved in the investigation of the 1986 killings in which two teachers, Lorraine Glasby, 28, and Paul Bellion, 29, both from Norfolk, were found shot dead in remote countryside.
Saad al-Hilli, a Surrey businessman, his wife Iqbal and her mother were shot dead near a beauty spot at Annecy in the French Alps in September 2012 along with a French cyclist. So far, there has been no significant breakthrough, despite an international investigation that has involved police in both France and Britain.
The claims made by the retired detective emerged as the French prosecutor’s office in Annecy announced last week that two traces of unidentified DNA had been found on the family’s car. Taken from the front bumper and from under a floor mat, the DNA does not match that of any of the victims or anyone on Europe’s criminal database.
Eric Maillaud, the Annecy prosecutor, also said a search was being conducted for the last known owners of all guns of the type used in the murders.
“We never give up. We remain confident,” he told Le Parisien newspaper.
Mr al-Hilli, 50, his wife Iqbal, 47, a dentist, Suhaila, 74, his mother-in-law and Sylvain Mollier, 45, a French cyclist, were found dead on a remote mountain forest road. The only witnesses were al-Hilli’s two young daughters, Zainab and Zeena, who survived.
Since then, wildly differing theories have emerged over the motive for the murders, ranging from a family dispute to claims that Mr al-Hilli was targeted by a foreign power over his work in satellite technology.
Others speculate that Mr Mollier might have been the real target.
Zaid al-Hilli, Saad’s brother, who was questioned at length by British and French police, has vehemently denied having anything to do with the brutal murders.
Like the al-Hillis, Ms Glasby and Mr Bellion were found shot, executionstyle, in a rural area. During his investigation of the Brittany case, Mr Huche identified what he described as a prime suspect, but was never able to secure a conviction.
Then, in 2008, the suspect was convicted of the attempted murder of three people in Belgium, in a case in which hunting weapons similar to those in the Brittany murders were used.
The man was released early in 2011, on the condition that he never entered Belgium again, and has since lived in various regions of France, said Mr Huche.
Police questioned the man’s father in relation to the unsolved murders of a Belgian couple in 1979 in Brittany – just 10 miles from where the British duo were killed.
Mr Maillaud, the Annecy prosecutor, said that he had informed gendarmes investigating the al-Hilli murders of Mr Huche’s tip-off, and was awaiting a reply as to whether they had questioned the individual or established his whereabouts at the time of the killings.
Mr Huche believes authorities overlooked the information, which he first passed on in 2014. “The gendarmes never got back to me and I believe that they did not seek to interrogate the suspect,” he said.