French Alps shootings were probably random attack, says prosecutor

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/17/french-alps-shootings-random-attack

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Police investigating the murder of three members of a British family in the French Alps believe it is more likely to have been a random attack than a targeted killing.

The prosecutor Eric Maillaud said there was still no motive for the murders of the Iraqi-born engineer Saad al-Hilli, his wife, Iqbal, her mother, Suhaila al-Allaf, and a French cyclist near Lake Annecy in September.

Police had begun to rule out a feud with Hilli's relatives as a motive and were now focusing on the possibility that the shootings were a random act by a mentally unbalanced killer. Maillaud said the shooter was likely to have a history of deadly violence.

"Without doubt we are looking for someone who has killed before, someone who puts no value on human life," he told the BBC. "We are not sure whether that means it's a professional hit, but if it was done on a contract it was very badly done," he said.

"We are looking for unbalanced people, capable of extreme violence. People who have access to weapons – hunters, collectors, shooting club members, some of whom could have had psychiatric problems. We are searching a huge area stretching into Switzerland and Italy, and that includes a large number of people."

Initial suspicions had fallen on a family dispute between Hilli, 50, of Claygate, Surrey, and his brother Zaid, who has strongly denied that a spat over an inheritance might be connected to the deaths. The family has expressed anger at being investigated for the killings. Maillaud said it was the "first obligation of any inquiry to eliminate the immediate family".

The murders happened in secluded woodland near the village of Chevaline on 5 September. The Hillis' four-year-old daughter Zeena hid under her mother's body for eight hours after the shooting. Her seven-year-old sister Zainab was found with serious injures after being shot and beaten.

About 100 police officers in Britain and France are investigating the murders in an investigation spanning France, Switzerland, Italy, the UK, Sweden and southern Spain, where Hilli's father had an apartment.

Maillaud played down speculation that the cyclist, Sylvain Mollier, 45, who worked in the nuclear industry, was the killer's main target. "We are 99% sure he was nothing to do with it," he said.