On the morning of 6th September 2012, while Zaid al-Hilli was eating breakfast at his Surrey home, he heard a news report about a British family that had been killed in France. \u201cI remember thinking it was very sad, then I showered, dressed and went to work,\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n
Only later that day did he learn that the family involved was his own, and that the scale of the tragedy was almost unimaginable: Zaid\u2019s brother Saad, his wife Iqbal and her mother Suhaila al-Allaf had all been shot at gunpoint in their car in a remote beauty spot a few miles from Lake Annecy in the French Alps.<\/p>\n
The couple\u2019s eldest daughter, Zainab, seven, had been shot, pistol-whipped and left for dead. Zainab\u2019s terrified four-year-old sister Zeena was discovered inside the car, sheltering under the skirt of her deceased mother, eight hours after French police first arrived.<\/p>\n
Alongside the car, a French cyclist called Sylvain Mollier had also been assassinated.<\/p>\n
The brutal and senseless deaths of a holidaying British family made headlines around the world, but Zaid\u2019s grief was quickly compounded by another horror, as he found himself placed under suspicion.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of a sudden you are at the heart of a storm,\u201d Zaid, now 63, recalls. \u201cYou\u2019re trying to understand what happened, then the next minute you are being accused of something you know nothing about.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
The approaching 10-year anniversary of the tragedy in September is one reason why Zaid has agreed to take part in a three-part Channel 4 documentary looking at the still unsolved murders. \u201cI needed to tell my side of the story, to show how much this very hurtful episode in our lives affected me and my loved ones,\u201d says Zaid.<\/p>\n
A genial, articulate man, Zaid\u2019s anger at what he experienced remains palpable to this day, along with his grief. The al-Hilli brothers were close, a bond forged by fleeing their home in Iraq for the UK in the wake of Saddam Hussein\u2019s power grab in 1968. \u201cWe did not want to leave, but we had to,\u201d says Zaid. \u201cBefore then my uncle was imprisoned and tortured. He came out of prison brain-damaged. You felt like you were always being watched.\u201d<\/p>\n
Three years younger than him, Saad, who Zaid fondly describes as a \u201crascal\u2019\u2019, was swifter to adjust to life in the UK. \u201cHe was more outgoing, he made friends a lot more quickly,\u2019\u2019 Zaid reflects. \u201cI\u2019m the quiet one.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
Both brothers ultimately settled here, raising their families not far from each other in Surrey. Saad, who was 50 when he was killed, worked as a design engineer for a technology company, while Zaid found success as an accountant.<\/p>\n
![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2022\/06\/murder-in-the-alps-1-44d416d.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>He was at work when he received a call from a friend telling him that the family he had heard about on the news bulletin that morning was in fact his brother and his sister-in-law as well as her mother. \u201cI was thinking it was impossible, and I went to the nearest police station hoping to hear it wasn\u2019t them,\u2019\u2019 he remembers.<\/p>\n
Surrey Police confirmed his worst fears, in circumstances that were hard to fathom: at least 21 bullets had been fired in what appeared to be a hitman-style execution and French police believed the al-Hillis were the target.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey immediately dismissed Sylvain Mollier as being in the wrong place at the wrong time, but at the same time said they didn\u2019t have any answers,\u2019\u2019 Zaid says. \u201cThese are two contradictory statements. How can you dismiss something completely, while saying at the same time that you don\u2019t know what\u2019s happened?\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t long before the police crystallised their view: after hours of co-operating willingly in interviews as a witness, Zaid was publicly named by French police as a suspect. \u201cI did something like 30 hours of interviews, and I did them in good faith \u2013 but what I was saying privately to them, in confidence, was being broadcast against me,\u2019\u2019 he recalls.<\/p>\n
In particular, the disclosure that he and his brother had argued over their inheritance from their late parents in the run-up to Saad\u2019s death was subsequently presented to the public as a \u201cviolent disagreement\u201d by the police. \u2018\u2018The word \u2018dispute\u2019 gave them a reason to continue with this bizarre witch hunt,\u2019\u2019 says Zaid now. \u201cAs far as I am concerned, there was no dispute. We had a disagreement.\u2019\u2019 Zaid also had a cast-iron alibi, but this did nothing to stop the French state prosecutor Eric Maillaud publicly casting doubts on his innocence.<\/p>\n
Besieged night and day by media, and unable to see his nieces, who were under armed guard in a French hospital, Zaid struggled not to succumb to paranoia.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou start becoming suspicious. My real worry was whether they were going to produce false evidence,\u2019\u2019 he says. \u201cIt was horrendous. I think the thing that kept me sane was going to work, and the support of my colleagues and friends. The people who know me didn\u2019t believe any of it from the beginning.\u2019\u2019<\/p>
Today, Zaid is clear that he believes there was a racist element to the investigation. \u201cFrom the way things were handled, I think it is always easy to blame the outsider, the foreigner. I think the French authorities would have behaved completely differently if the names were different,\u2019\u2019 he says.<\/p>\n
He points out that other theories bandied around by the press seemed to be rooted in distrust of the family\u2019s nationality: Saad\u2019s work for a satellite technology company led to him being accused of being a spy under surveillance from the secret service, and the discovery of a Swiss bank account containing nearly a million euros in the name of Saad and Zaid\u2019s father was cited as dirty money linked to Saddam\u2019s regime. \u201cThey even used the fact that Zainab was found outside the vehicle, suggesting her father had left her outside to save himself,\u2019\u2019 says Zaid. \u2018\u2018It\u2019s such a despicable statement.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
Nine months after his family were slaughtered and, following months of unsuccessful attempts by the French police to have Zaid brought to France for questioning, he was arrested by Surrey Police on suspicion of conspiracy to murder. On the advice of his lawyer he gave a \u2018no comment\u2019 interview. \u201cIf you\u2019ve got nothing to hide, you just have to stand your ground,\u2019\u2019 he says now. \u2018\u2018I wasn\u2019t going to be intimidated. Our family were intimidated in 1970 [in Iraq] and I wasn\u2019t going to be intimidated again by anyone.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
After 24 hours in custody, Zaid was released on bail, but it would be another seven months before Surrey Police announced there was insufficient evidence to bring charges. \u201cThere was huge relief, of course, but also anger at what they had put us through,\u201d he says. He is particularly damning of the French police, pointing out the catalogue of errors that hampered their investigation \u2013 from lost evidence to contaminated forensics \u2013 as well as their blinkered thinking.<\/p>\n
His frustration is echoed by retired Surrey detective Mark Preston, who speaks candidly in the documentary about tensions between their force and their French counterparts over the latter\u2019s dogged focus on Zaid.<\/p>\n
For his own part, Zaid has always believed that Sylvain Mollier was the true target, citing an alleged \u201cvow of silence\u201d by those close to him and a subsequent cover-up by the French authorities. \u201cI think they knew from day one what happened, and they have hidden it,\u2019\u2019 he insists. \u2018\u2018The whole thing was a deception. It means it\u2019s very difficult to move on sometimes. I still live it every day \u2013 and my brother is with me every day.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
He takes consolation in his own family, and in the company of his nieces \u2013 now thriving teenagers who live under a different identity. \u201cThey\u2019re lovely girls,\u201d he says. \u201cThey\u2019re doing well and they are happy.\u201d Zaid, too, has found his own happiness after moving from Surrey to the coast. \u201cI\u2019ve got the sea, I\u2019ve got nice countryside, I\u2019ve got good friends and grandchildren,\u201d he says. \u201cSometimes you have to be grateful for what you\u2019ve got in life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Murder in the Alps airs on Channel 4 on Sunday 26th June at 9pm. Check out our <\/span><\/strong>dedicated documentary hub<\/a>, our guide to the best true crime series<\/a>, or see what else is on with our TV Guide<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n The latest issue of Radio Times magazine is on sale now \u2013\u00a0subscribe now<\/a>\u00a0and get the next 12 issues for only \u00a31. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the\u00a0Radio Times podcast<\/a>\u00a0with Jane Garvey.<\/b><\/p><\/body><\/html>\n By Kathryn Knight Published: Friday, 24 June 2022 at 12:00 am This interview was originally published in Radio Times magazine. On the morning of 6th September 2012, while Zaid al-Hilli was eating breakfast at his Surrey home, he heard a news report about a British family that had been killed in France. \u201cI remember thinking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":17479,"template":"","categories":[5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/06\/murder-in-the-alps-revisits-true-crime-10-years-later.jpg",620,413,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/06\/murder-in-the-alps-revisits-true-crime-10-years-later-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/06\/murder-in-the-alps-revisits-true-crime-10-years-later-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/06\/murder-in-the-alps-revisits-true-crime-10-years-later.jpg",620,413,false],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/06\/murder-in-the-alps-revisits-true-crime-10-years-later.jpg",620,413,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/06\/murder-in-the-alps-revisits-true-crime-10-years-later.jpg",620,413,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/06\/murder-in-the-alps-revisits-true-crime-10-years-later.jpg",620,413,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Kathryn Knight Published: Friday, 24 June 2022 at 12:00 am This interview was originally published in Radio Times magazine. On the morning of 6th September 2012, while Zaid al-Hilli was eating breakfast at his Surrey home, he heard a news report about a British family that had been killed in France. \u201cI remember thinking…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/17478"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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