Murder in the Alps Panorama

A family from Britain on holiday in the French Alps, brutally murdered.

A father, mother and grandmother, shot at point-blank range in their

car. They were killed in that way with their kids around and the

mother in the car. They think it is disastrous, unimaginable. A

seven-year-old girl is shot and left for dead. The cyclist is killed.

Another has a narrow escape. I was thinking to myself, I wonder if this

will be painful when I get shot. The British former RAF pilot who

discovered the crime takes us back to the scene. It is a mystery.

Complex, unsolved, and Agatha Christie whodunnit type of scenario.

The murder mystery sparked a huge police investigation in 15

countries. Now a witness speaks for the first time about the British car

that he saw just before the murders. The car was a BMW 4x4, X5, metallic

grey. It was right-hand drive, English. We investigate the murder

weapon and ask if the killer was a professional. Whilst the family the

target of an intelligence agency because the father worked for a

high-tech company in Britain? -- was the family? Or was the target the

cyclist? Is the Anza to the murder mystery closer to home? We seek

extraordinary online conversations with the dead man. I am shocked by

the information I have gathered. Can you really be my brother? The

brother suspected by the police were being behind the murders defends

himself on Panorama, his first television interview. Did you kill

your brother? Of course not. It is ridiculous, the whole thing.

A late summer afternoon in the Alps a year ago. The al-Hilli family from

England are on holiday by Lake Annecy in France. They set out for a

local beauty spot. In the car, a father, mother, grandmother and two

little girls. They drive through a village and up a narrow road that

leads high into the mountains. That day, an Englishman sets off for a

bike ride up the same road. Brett Martin, a former RAF pilot, has a

holiday home in the area. I had no fixed route in my mind where I was

going to go. Either the house at 2:30pm. It was sunny, fine, no wind,

a peaceful and pleasant afternoon. In the village of Chevaline, Brett

first notices another cyclist ahead of him, a Frenchman. It was a bit

surprising to see someone on a racing bike because racing cyclists

tend to look after their bikes. Wheels are easily damaged on

potholes and links. Brett starts with three mile climb up the road

from the village. Aslan climbing up the hill at a relatively slow pace,

a relatively slow pace, vehicle passes me. -- as I am climbing. I am

pretty sure the car contained the al-Hilli family. Nestling in the

French Alps, the village of Chevaline, which Brett Martin has

just driven through. Sylvain Mollier, the French cyclist, is

ahead of him. Around 3:30pm, Brett is overtaken by the al-Hillis's car.

They continue up the steep road to Le Martinet. It is only a few

minutes drive to this parking spot, but it will take Brett another ten

minutes to cycle there. At about 3:40pm, the al-Hillis reach Le

Martinet. According to the French police, this is what then happens.

Saad al-Hilli gets out of the car with his seven-year-old daughter,

Zainab. In less than a minute, four people will be dead. As soon as Saad

and Zainab get out of the car, the gunman fires on them. Sylvain

Mollier arrives and is shot fatally. Saad, wounded, gets in the car and

tries to escape, but the car gets stuck on a bank. The gunman keeps

firing. Saad, his wife and mother-in-law reach shot at least

twice at close range. Zainab has been shot but the gunman has run out

of bullets, so the clubs. Her sister, four -year-old Zeena, is

hiding under her dead mother's skirt in the back of the car. She sees

nothing. A year ago in this beautiful spot,

four people were brutally murdered and a little girl was shot and left

for dead. No culprit has yet been found. Tonight we will be

investigating what really happened here and why. The investigation is

being run by the French authorities in the nearby town of Annecy. The

prosecutor has given us new details about the murders and watch the only

eyewitness to the shootings, seven-year-old Zainab, has been able

to tell them. She has given us very little information. She is obviously

badly traumatised by what she has been proved. According to the

doctors, she has blocked it out. Zainab has only been able to tell

the police there was one bad man. She can't identify the killer. She

did not really see him. She cannot give us any information about him.

What remains in her mind is fear, terror, gunfire, her father

screaming. We have gone over with key witnesses what they saw that

afternoon. And tries to piece together what happened. Brett Martin

coming up the hill at about 3:45pm saw the man we now know to be the

gunman escaping. He was going very slowly, abnormally slowly. At that

time, it seemed odd. Tell me what happened when you came round the

corner. As I came round the corner behind us, the first thing I could

see was the French cyclist's bicycle lying on its side in the middle of

the road, quite a way out. I then saw a young child stumble from left

to right towards the middle of the road and then fall down. Brett,

thinking it was a traffic accident, went to help Zainab. He pulled her

to one side of the road. She had quite a bad fleshy injury to her

right forehead. Her eyes were rolling and she was in and out of

consciousness. I could actually then see and hear the car. Its engine was

revving at full revs. Brett went over to the cyclist, Sylvain

Mollier, who was clearly dead. He pulled him clear of the revving car.

As you can see by the real ruts, the car had reversed into this location.

I am presuming that it got grounded in the gravel with the wheels

spinning. I looked at the driver and it became immediately obvious that

he had been shot. There was nothing to be done for him. Where was he

shot? Shot in the head. I then circled around to the other side of

the car to see whether anybody in the back was alive and therefore

needed help. As I look into the back of the car, it is very obvious that

the two ladies in the back had been shot, murdered. Where had they been

shot? The older lady in the forehead and I could not see the face of the

younger lady, but she was very evidently dead.

Then I was thinking, is there a hunter, a sniper type of character

hiding in the trees, maybe shooting from a covered position or something

like that? I was thinking to myself, I wonder if this is going to be

painful when I get shot? Brett tried to call the emergency services but

could not get the signal. After checking on the little girl, he went

for help. Murdered in France, three members of

a British family... A major investigation is under way...

Zainab was rushed to hospital and survived. The French forensic team

were at the murder spot for eight hours before they made an

astonishing discovery. Four -year-old Zeena, frozen with fear,

in the back of the car. Somehow the child had hidden under Iqbal's skirt

in her mother's last moments of life. There was only one child seat

in the car and we had found one child. A helicopter with a heat

sensor flew over the car but as the bodies were warm, just recently

deceased, they did not detect the little girl. From the start, the

murders in the Alps in treat the world. Few clues and no obvious

motive for killing a family and a cyclist. The case sparked an

international manhunt involving forces in France, Switzerland, Spain

and a dozen other countries. Investigators here in France have

been working on a number of theories involving the al-Hilli family. Was

it a disputed inheritance? Or something to do with the family's

background in Iraq? Or could it be best be an arch because of Saad's

work as a satellite engineer? -- espionage. The media descended on

the al-Hillis' house in Claygate. The Surrey police began to help the

French investigates just who this family really were. The al-Hillis

seemed a normal family, living a quiet life in the Home Counties.

Saad al-Hilli's parents fled to England from Iraq when he was a

child. His father was a businessman. His mother was a

teacher. He had an older brother, Zaid. Our relationship was very

close. We looked after each other. Saad had a close friend, also

originally from Iraq. Saad was an extremely genuine person, very

likeable. A very decent person, very honest. Saad and his brother Zaid

lived together in the family home in Claygate. Always joking, almost too

much, but that was his way of doing things. Ten years ago, Saad married

Iqbal, who trained as a dentist in Iraq with Dr Alabdi. She really was

very keen to start working as a dentist in the UK and she spent a

very long time studying. The al-Hillis had two little girls,

Zeena and Zainab. Their father became firm friends with another

parent at the playgroup. He was very much a family man and loved both his

children very expressively, always hugging and kissing and cuddling and

chasing around. The girls were everything to him. He always wanted

children and he loved them lots. You know, they were very close family.

Saad treasured his BMW and loved to take his family on holiday in their

caravan. The girls called it Spotty. The caravan was his escape. It was

always ready to go places on the front drive. Then a more complex

picture of the loving family man began to emerge. Saad al-Hilli was a

freelance industrial designer. An expert computer draughtsman. He had

tens of old computers in his garage. And he had a full work set up in his

study with large screens attached to laptops and desktops and things.

Yes, he liked computers. Saad often worked for SSTL, a satellite

engineering firm in Guildford. With his technical know-how and Middle

East background, investigators still wondered if Saad was a target for

foreign intelligence agencies. We found on Saad al-Hilli's computer is

extremely important data that went well beyond anything he needed for

his work. Was it merely professional curiosity or was he trying to sell

it? That is what makes this part of the investigation so complex. If he

was seeking to sell information to foreign powers, we would be dealing

with intelligence agencies, which could provide an explanation for the

murders. The police will not say what the data on the computer was.

We understand that it was not defence-related and his friends and

family say he only worked on basic industrial designs. I often joked

that he was making death rays in Guildford because I knew he would

never get clearance to do anything secret. He did not have top security

clearance? None at all. He was a contractor brought in to solve small

problems. He was very efficient at it. I never thought his work was

anything sensitive. I doubt if Saad is involved in espionage. I would

not think he would let his company and colleagues down. Saad's work

meant the family living in a quiet Surrey suburb have been the subject

of wild speculation. Could Iraq key agents, the Israeli Mossad or the

CIA have targeted Saad al-Hilli? So you don't think he was a target

of an intelligence agency because of the nature of his work? No. He is

just a normal person. The mystery of whether spies were involved in the

murders in the Alps deepened when the identity of the fourth victim

was revealed. The French cyclist, Sylvain Mollier, lived just up the

valley, ten miles from where he was killed. To this day, is relatives

have not allowed a photograph of him to be seen. TRANSLATION: We wondered

what the French cyclist was doing there. He was in the mountains on a

racing bike, quite unsuitable for the road leading up to the parking

spot. It is a poor road, with lots of potholes. It seemed odd that

Sylvain Mollier should be there on a racing bike. Sylvain Mollier worked

in Ugine at a factory involved in the nuclear industry, which raised

the question of whether he was the target because of what he knew. Some

people have wondered if Sylvain Mollier's work provided a motive for

the killings. But although he worked as a technician at a nuclear related

plant here in Ugine, we understand he did not work on only thing

top-secret. The police checked out if there was any link between

Sylvain Mollier and Saad, who worked on satellites, or even the former

RAF pilot, Brett Martin. What Mollier riding on that road to some

secret assignation? TRANSLATION: Today, we are not certain, but we

believe he just got lost and kept going. We are now pretty sure he was

there by mistake, and not for a meeting. French investigators may

have dismissed the theory that the French cyclist was killed because he

was involved in espionage. But in Ugine, where Sylvain Mollier came

from, there is another angle. Mollier had two children and was

divorced from his wife. He had a new partner from a wealthy family, who

some think disapproved of him. There have been reports that it was his

partner's father who suggested that Mollier take that route that day.

When the information started coming out that Sylvain Mollier was

involved in family disputes and he was an outsider to this rich family,

I think that focused attention that there is something more to it

locally, because most crime has local routes. TRANSLATION: Some

claimed there was a conflict between him and his future father-in-law.

But if all disagreements ended in murder, there would be a lot more of

them. Sylvain Mollier was shot up to five times. Some people think the

investigators closed off the local avenue of enquiry to quickly and

focused wrongly on the al-Hilli family as the intended victims. I

don't think Saad was the target. He was on holiday. The target was

Sylvain Mollier, and the origins of this crime are in Annecy or that

region. TRANSLATION: Today we are convinced that Sylvain Mollier

happened to be there. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time, as

they say. Unfortunately, he was a collateral victim of the murder.

What is the proof to say he was at the wrong place at the wrong time?

They have shown no proof. I think it is a cover-up. They know exactly who

did it. The forensic investigation has not yielded any DNA evidence as

to the murderer or the motive. But it has provided some vital clues

about the type of weapon used - lit casings and a fragment of the gun

handle broken when Zainab was clubbed. The police have established

that the gun was a Swiss model, standard issue to army officers in

the past. This is a Swiss Army Luger. It is 1906 and calibre run

thee. So it is a very old gun? Yes, it is a very old gun, more than 100

years old. Jean Robert Consolini, Switzerland's for most gun dealer,

worked with the police and army. He sells many Lugers. It may be an old

model, but it is an accurate weapon. This pistol is like a Swiss watch.

It is very nice, made of steel without screws. You can disassemble

it very easy. It is very good. There are 30,000 of these guns in

Switzerland alone. You can buy one for about ?1500. You can put seven

cartridges in the magazines, just one in the barrel. So eight in

total? Eight in total. But this weapon is not what a professional

hit man would normally choose. We know 21 rounds were fired from the

gun used in the murders, so they must have had... The shooter had to

reload two times. And yet we understand it was all done in a

matter of 20 or 30 seconds. Yes. It is not easy to do it quickly. So

what does that tell you about him? It must be a good shooter. The

murder weapon was Swiss, and the Swiss border is just 30 miles from

the murder scene. So the authorities in Geneva have been tasked by the

French to investigate the gun. TRANSLATION: We were not expecting

the weapon in such a crime to be a P06. You find this type of gun in a

museum or a private collection. It is a weapon that is recognised by

Colette does as being very precise, very reliable. But it would seem the

weapon was used by chance. I would imagine because he found it on the

black market. So what does the type of gun and the way it was used to

tell investigators about the likely killer? TRANSLATION: There were 21

shots. 17 hit targets. The bodywork of the car was untouched. The car

was moving all the time and he had to reload as he was firing. So we

are obviously dealing with someone highly experienced, a professional,

maybe but he could also be a former soldier, a mercenary. We are certain

he was the only gunman. The French police have investigated the theory

that the gunman was a deranged individual looking for any target.

TRANSLATION: The police checked all the databases in Switzerland and

France of mentally unstable people, former soldiers who might have been

thrown out of the army, people known for violence and for liking guns.

But they have not led us to identify a lone gunman. Brett Martin was

taken back to the scene a week later to retrace his route and try and

reveal more about the gunman. With a skilled marksman on the loose,

whoever he was, the police were nervous. I had body armour and a

fully armed protection squad, which was slightly disturbing. I was

thinking, is there something you are not telling me that I need to know?

But on mature reflection, it would not look good if something had

happened to me. The French investigators wanted to understand

why Brett and others nearby had not heard the gunfire. They stationed

police along the route and fired test shots from up at the parking

area. They have done trials at a location where they estimate I would

have been at the time the shootings took place. Even listening with

technical microphones, you could not hear any gunfire at that point. If

you are located in an area clear of the river, a much quieter area, you

would probably hear the echo through the valley, but the rushing water

noise has that masking effect. The killer had picked just the right

spot. So was he hired by someone to get rid of the victims? And if so,

how did he know they would be in such a place and that day at that

time? We have found a witness who suggests that the murders were not

carried out by one man acting alone. TRANSLATION: It was a beautiful

autumn day. The tourist season had ended, and it was very calm. This

witness, a forestry worker, has never spoken publicly before and

does not want to be identified for fear of the killer still at large.

Just minutes before the shooting, this man was coming down the road

when something caught his eye. When I arrived, there was a motorbike

pulling into the parking area. I passed the parking spot and the

motorbike was on the left here. I remember it well. It was white and

black, with panniers on either side, and the rider was all in

black. Could you see his face? No, his visor was completely closed and

he was all in black. So it seems the forestry worker saw the killer just

minutes before the al-Hillis arrived. And for the first time, he

has described another vehicle he saw, and the driver. This car was

British and driven by someone who seems to have been an accomplice. It

was there that I passed him, on this side. He was coming really fast. He

arrived on the left and passed really quickly here. The car was a

BMW 4x4, grey metallic, in good condition. Clean, it looked pretty

new. It was right-hand drive, English. I did not get much of a

look at the driver, but he was slightly bald and had dark skin, no

glasses. So the Forrester had seen the black-and-white motorbike at the

parking spot, and only a couple of minutes later passed the grey BMW

racing up the mountains. His account gave the investigators a new lead,

and it is backed up by two of his colleagues. Ten minutes later, they

drove down the same road. They saw the motorbike above the parking area

at Le Martinet, be and which motor vehicles are not allowed to go. They

told me they passed the motorbike I had passed at Place Martinet, two

bends further up. So they had words with him because motor vehicles are

not allowed. So they called out to him and asked him to drive down.

They saw his face because he lifted his helmet, so they saw him. He had

a bit of a beard. The police have yet to issue this first brief

description of the gunman. It seems he was working with an accomplice to

do the surveillance. So was this the work of some security agency? The

hit man may have been a good marksman, but killing a family,

including women, and a cyclist, and shooting a child does not bear the

hallmarks of a carefully planned, state sponsors and -- assassination.

If you look at assassinations, if the CIA or Mossad want to

assassinate someone they usually assassinate them near work or

leaving their work. They don't follow them 1000 miles and

assassinate them. The whole thing just doesn't make sense. So if it

was not an intelligence agency, could it have been a contract

killing carried out by someone in the criminal underworld? Either

way, the murder spot at Le Martinet was perfectly placed for a quick

getaway. As well as the road back down, which it seems the motorbike

took, the BMW could have taken one of several forest routes over the

mountains. It is only a short distance to Italy and Switzerland. A

small car could not make it. The road is too bad. But the guy with

the 4x4, he could have. If he had looked at a map, there was a

motorway about an hour and a half away that takes you straight to

Italy. French police have traced all the vehicles in the area that day

except two. They are still looking for the white motorbike and the

grave 4x4. Was this British car known to the al-Hilli family? This

is the first time here that, OK? Now where did this British cars go? Did

it cross borders? Where is it? Do you know anything about this British

car? I don't know anything about this British car. The family had

been staying on this campsite... Search of the caravan may have

produced clues... Investigators soon made a surprising discovery in the

campsite where the al-Hillis had been staying, in their caravan. As

well as the children's bicycles, there was something else in the

caravan that would lead quickly to Britain. In his caravan, Saad

al-Hilli had a number of computers, software, hard disks, USB memory

sticks, paper documents, in which we found a huge amount of information

on every aspect of his life. Today the family house in Claygate

is locked up and deserted. But it did hear that investigators have

discovered a web of complex family relations. -- it is here. It all

centres around property. As well as this house, there were other flats

in England and other places abroad. This property portfolio had been put

together by card al-Hilli, Saad and Zaid's father who died in 2007. --

Kadhem al-Hilli. He had fled to Britain from Iraq in the 1970s.

Investigators have tried to get to the bottom of the family history in

Iraq to see if there was a motive here for the murders. Kadhem

al-Hilli once had factories and a farm. Afraid of Saddam Hussein's

regime, he had sold some businesses that capped a house in Baghdad.

After the fall of Saddam Hussein, the area was tense and lawless. The

family's old home had been taken over by squatters but the youngest

son, Saad, went to try and take it back. It was shortly after the fall

of the regime. He didn't feel very safe and it did not go that well.

The people who used to occupy the house threatened him and he just

came back. Although he had been threatened and beaten up, Saad

continued to try and resolve the problem in Iraq. Could the murders

have been linked to the dispute over the property here? Shortly before

the killing, I asked him what was happening with the house and his

answer was very brief and cheerful. He said it had been sorted. Why did

know any more, I don't know how it was sorted. -- I don't know any

more. We have encountered a problem with regards to Iraq. The situation

in the country makes it difficult for investigators to travel there so

it is difficult to get precise information. In Spain however,

investigators would find more revealing information about the

al-Hilli family. Kadhem retired there when his wife died about ten

years ago. He bought a small flat in the village of Mijas and his sons

would visit him there while he was still alive. Who was a charming

gentleman, very dapper, very well-dressed. -- he was. The flat

was sold to Kadhem by a British estate agent in the village. He did

not speak very much English but he had a twinkle in his eye and he was

always charming and polite. I had no idea from what I have read that he

had any wealth. He lived very modestly. He was nothing out of the

ordinary, just a sweet little old man. To people here, there did not

seem to be any problems in the family or between the two brothers.

The sons were fine. I knew Zaid better. Why got the impression that

he was a bit of a loner, -- I got. Very charming, very sweet. But under

the surface, there were tensions over the al-Hilli property in Spain.

We know that Saad was troubled by what he discovered his brother Zaid

had done about the ownership of the flat in Mijas. We understand that

Zaid had tried to put the property in his name alone. When his father

objected he changed it to his own and his father's name, that Saad's

name was not on the deeds. Zaid agreed to his first television

interview, saying he wanted to set the record straight. It was Saad's

name on those steeds? No, because he was not with us. Why not if he was

stood to inherit at some point? I don't know that. Ask my father. He

is not here, unfortunately. The house in Claygate was left to Saad

and Zaid after their father died. Zaid continued to live there even

after Saad married. There were no tensions? No. It was a very good

brotherly relationship. No attention at all. But we understand that their

relationship had begun to turn sour. The year before the killings, Kadhem

came here to Claygate to visit. We have learned that his father made

Saad worried when he told him that Zaid had got him to sign a blank

world. Saad found the will in the house. This was December 2011. Saad

told his friend James Mathews about the will in an extraordinary online

exchange. What does he say? He did not tell me about the will. Saad

used the word fraud. Saad thought his brother was trying to exclude

him from the inheritance. He thought that Will was fraudulent? Yes, that

was his opinion. When my father came here last year he asked me where is

the paper that I signed and I did not know what my dad was talking

about. So Zaid had made him sign a blank paper. Saad said that to you?

That is what he typed. His words. He says, in the end we found it and I

was not mentioned. We understand that Saad challenged Zaid who then

produced a different world. -- a different will. We found two draft

wills, one in which the older brother was left all of the

father's assets, and one where they were divided equally between the

sons. So that is when we realised there was a problem between the

brothers. Zaid claimed they had always got on well. The French

investigators believe that at the heart of this is the disputed

inheritance between you and your brother. Did you help your father

make the will and what was in it? I think this would not be appropriate

for legal reasons to talk about. We know your brother was talking about

this online with a friend. He talked about it being fraud against him and

he was not mentioned in the world. He felt that you were to blame.

Again, I go back to the same point. For legal reasons, it would not be

appropriate. They'd al-Hilli had warned us that he could not talk

about certain matters as the British police are investigating him over

possible fraud. After finding the will, Saad began to investigate

every aspect of the family properties and the brothers'

inheritance. Relations quickly deteriorated and things came to a

head later that year after their father died. Did he talk about rows

that he had had with his brother? No. It was very much silence. They

ended up communicating by lawyer. He was writing to his lawyer, who was

writing to his brother, which I thought was a shame. I had hoped

that blood was thicker than money. I have not spoken to Saad since

October 2011. So there were problems between you? Differences? Yes,

tensions. Every family has disagreements, but we must not

exaggerate them. If you involve a solicitor, what does that mean?

Something bad? On the contrary. I think we did the right thing to

involve a solicitor, to have somebody who would do everything

professionally. The French investigators have told us that the

lawyer could be a key witness. Though Zaid was still living there,

by October 2011 there was open conflict in the Claygate house. We

have discovered that the police were even called one night. I wanted

something from him and he would not give me a copy, or return my copy,

rather. It was not really... It was more of a heated discussion. It must

have been quite heated if the police were called. Well, he calls them. I

don't know why he had to call them and they were not interested. The

following month, Zaid moved out into another flat that his brother and

father had partly financed in nearby Chessington. This one, Saad

discovered, had been registered in Zaid's name alone. Well, it is a

combination of people. Saad had to share and my father gave me the

money towards the flat and I had my money in it as well. But Saad's name

was not on the deeds of the flat? Yes, he never wanted his name to be

on the deeds of the flat. Saad was getting angry, as he made clear in

his online messages. I have been gathering information on my brother

and I am shocked. Can he really be my brother? We also know that one

month after his brother left Claygate, Saad changed the locks on

the house and he installed security cameras. He also had a Taser, an

electric stun gun. Saad now thought that Zaid wanted half the value of

the Claygate house, ?400,000, and he was worried he would have to sell

the family home. He was talking about the house. He said all the

work and earnings had gone into it and I knew how hard he had worked.

And he said he would pay for none of it. Zaid? Yes. I said to be there in

court to tell them when I need you because I think that is where it

will end up, in court. So he was asking you to be a witness for him

if necessary, if it came to a showdown with the brother? This is

why I have given the logs to the police. He thinks I should give him

the house. Everything emanates from that. I have never really wanted the

Claygate house. I knew that Saad liked it, he loved it and wanted to

stay there. I would not dream of asking him to get a mortgage just on

my account. He obviously felt under enormous pressure from you, pressure

over money and half of the house. I did not bring up the problem...

Anything about the house. The police then made a fresh discovery in

Switzerland. Their father had money here in a private bank account, too.

There would be another twist in this complicated tale. We discovered that

Kadhem, Zaid and Saad's father, set up an account in this Geneva bank in

1988, depositing ?690,000. He hardly touched it after that. So a year

before Kadhem died, the bank was surprised to get a request from

England, not Spain where he was living. A request for a credit card

to take money from his account. It was a bank employee who saw this

strange request and noticed that the signature was peculiar. He rang the

father who said that he did not want a credit card, cancel it. And we

found out afterwards that it was Zaid trying to falsify his father's

signature to obtain two credit cards. So it was fraud by Zaid? Yes,

it was clearly a fraudulent attempt. Did you try to get a credit card in

your father's name to withdraw money from that account? Again it would

not be appropriate for me to discuss that for legal reasons, as you

understand. With the money in Switzerland and the properties,

investigators believe the al-Hilli assets were worth over ?2 million.

TRANSLATION: The investigators have become convinced that Zaid tried to

steal from his father, one way or another, and that there was a very

serious feud between the two brothers, so serious that Saad

al-Hilli was afraid of his brother. As you know, he had changed the

locks at the house and fitted a new alarm. The French investigators are

convinced that you had a motive for killing your brother and his family.

A lot of money was basically at stake, perhaps ?2 million or more.

This is a complete to live by the French investigators. The French

investigators have used Saad and I to divert attention from the origins

of this crime. By the end of August last year, Saad had had enough of

the legal wrangling. The family went off to the Alps, taking the records

of the disputed inheritance with them. Saad had taken out a legal

block on his father's will and registered his interest in the

Chessington flat to stop his brother selling it. When the family reached

the Alps, Saad plant to go to the bank in nearby Geneva. Investigators

say each brother had told the Swiss bank not to release any money to the

other. He called the bank on Monday afternoon to say, I am going to pop

round to the bank, and he was dead on Wednesday. What does that tell

you? It is disturbing. You can't draw any conclusions today, but it

is just the thing. There is a closeness about the dates that is

disturbing. Within those two days, the killer struck not just at Saad,

but his wife, mother-in-law and children, too.

Did you kill your brother? Of course not. Did you arrange for anyone else

to kill the family, your brother and relatives? No. The people who killed

my brother are the French. So you are saying it is because the French

cyclist was the target that your brother was caught up in this? Yes.

We are dealing with probably very powerful people, powerful local

people. They know each other. They are in each other's pockets. That is

what we need to find out. You seem to be saying that the French don't

want to find a French cup it? Yes. -- a French culprit. They focused

the attention onto us. I have to be blunt. It has a racist background to

it. Our background is Middle Eastern, Arab, Muslim, and that is

very convenient. Why did you shut down that line of enquiry? People in

Britain, particularly in the al-Hilli family, believed the

cyclist is the key to this murder. TRANSLATION: I can't prevent anyone

interested in this story from having an opinion. The police have

investigated First Minister's family as far as they could. There is

nothing to link Mollier's family to this murder. The police are

convinced of it. People can think anything they like.

From the start, the French investigators wanted Zaid-al-Hilli

to come to Annecy. But he has refused to be interviewed in France.

Why did you not agree to go to France and be questioned there? I

don't trust the French. I do not trust the investigators. Remember,

Saad was killed, and his wife and her mother and Sylvain Mollier, in

that region. I am not going to risk it. You would be worried about your

end safety? Yes. Why? Anything can happen.

But even before the funerals were held back home, Zaid-al-Hilli went

voluntarily to the police in Surrey. He would tell them he was in England

with a friend at the time of the murders, and that he and his brother

got on fine. I said to them that there were not any trouble is

between us. From the way I look at it, I do not have any issues with

Saad. But that is not strictly true, because there are serious issues or

were serious issues between you. Not really, no. Saad had issues, but I

did not have issues. TRANSLATION: We know that when Zaid says he got on

with his brother, he is lying. I was not lying. That was how I looked at

it. I didn't raise any issues with Saad about anything.

In June this year, Zaid's flat in Chessington was searched. He was

arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to murder and later bailed. He has

never been charged. But the brothers' falling out over the

alleged fraud involving the will and the Swiss bank account had been

discovered soon after the murders, nine months earlier. So why the

delay? TRANSLATION: We, the Swiss authorities, immediately passed on

these documents. After that, I don't know what happened. When we met up

in May with the British authorities, I passed the documents on again. So

why didn't the British police act sooner? I have no idea. That is

their choice. Why did it take so long to arrest Zaid-al-Hilli and

search his home nine months from the start the investigation? It is

difficult, even impossible to answer that question. You would have to ask

the British investigators, because that is one of the problems with an

international investigation. French law is different from British law,

so the way of conducting an investigation is different. Surrey

and Sussex police told us that as this is an ongoing investigation,

they cannot comment on operational matters. They say they continue to

work closely with the French. Are you worried that evidence has

been lost - phone records, financial records that Zaid had, because of

this delay? Yes, it is a possibility, obviously. But every

country feels that its own way of doing things is the right one.

A year after the al-Hillis made that fateful journey, there is still no

evidence of who the gunman and his accomplices were. A possible link to

Romania has been discounted. There is no DNA, no increment dating phone

calls. Do you have any information about

the possible hit man, any leads as to who that person was? No.

Absolutely nothing. It is just someone who was a highly experienced

gunman with a very cool head, who could kill several people in cold

blood, who could even consider killing a little girl with no

problem. So we have got a psychological profile.

Unfortunately, we have no precise information about the killer. The

French investigators say they will solve the mystery of the murders in

the Alps, however long it takes. They have enough to keep 40

detectives busy for another year at least, tracking thousands of phone

calls made in the area and hundreds of e-mails. But so far, they only

have one suspect. So Zaid-al-Hilli is your number one suspect?

TRANSLATION: I have always refused to refer to him as our number one

suspect. But he is indeed the only person we know that we have

identified to whom we can put a face and who has a motive for the murder.

But what is certain, whether it is in France or Britain, if he was

judged in court tomorrow, he would be acquitted both here and in

Britain. He has a motive, but the fact that he has a motive does not

make him the killer. You were the only one with a motive for killing

your brother that has been established so far, and the

suspicion rests on you. What is the motive? Prove it, I said to them.

And they are wrong, because they are covering up. They are covering up

for someone in France in that region, and they know it. That is

why I offered to do a polygraph test. A lie detector test? Yes. The

French are not interested in a polygraph. Zaid-al-Hilli also wants

a judicial enquiry, and says he will put up a reward for information

leading to the killers. Brett Martin, the man who discovered

the murders, still rides his bike up the mountain road to Le Martinet. I

have intentionally gone back there so that it now is a normal thing to

do to ride up that road without fear of what went on in the past, because

I think you can't live your life in permanent fear of what might be in

the shadows. Saad's friends fear that whoever is behind the murders

may never be held accountable. I hope the people responsible will be

caught and brought to justice, but it does not seem as if we know

enough to even get near them. You think they will ever solve this

crime? I would hope so, but I don't hold much hope. Without DNA

evidence, I don't think there is any way of solving it. The two little

girls who survived the killings in the Alps spent months under the

protection of social services. Zainab and Xena have now been

allowed to live with one of their mother's relatives, but have not

seen their uncle. Life will be difficult for them, wanted? Yes, of

course. It is a tragedy for the whole family. They are flesh and

blood. They are my nieces, and I lived with them, I know them. I

bought them presents. We used to read together, play together. The

Zaid-al-Hilli, whose brother was murdered, and whose reputation has

been damaged, the last year has been very painful. This does not leave me

for a minute. It is with me 24/7, every minute of the day. And you are

dealing with lots of emotions, emotions of bereavement, anger,

emotions of being let down by a system. The horror of what happened

in the Alps is still all too real for everyone involved. The relatives

of Sylvain Mollier. For the girls whose parents and grandmother were

Ruta Lee murdered. And for the brother who is still under

suspicion.