France shootings: Saad al-Hilli brother 'denies family row'

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BBC News - France shootings: Saad al-Hilli brother 'denies family row'

The brother of Alps shooting victim Saad al-Hilli has told UK police there was no dispute over "financial matters", French prosecutors have said.

Prosecutor Eric Maillaud said French officers would interview Mr al-Hilli's brother in the UK as a "witness".

He formally confirmed Mr al-Hilli and his wife were among four people fatally shot near Lake Annecy on Wednesday.

And he said the British cyclist who reported the crime had seen a dark four-wheel drive vehicle heading away.

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Analysis

Imogen Foulkes
BBC News, Annecy
The final confirmation of the victims' names came from the al-Hilli's four-year-old daughter. When police officers asked her what she could remember, she told them she had been in the car "with Mummy and Daddy".

Autopsies have been completed on those who died, the police have said, and the manner of death was the same for all: multiple gunshot wounds, each had at least one bullet wound to the head.

But police remain in the dark about who may have carried out the killings.

Four-year-old Zeena doesn't seem to have seen anything significant, and investigators are now pinning their hopes on her older sister, Zainab.

Just seven years old, she sustained serious injuries in the attack, and is in a medically induced coma.

Doctors don't know when she will be well enough to be questioned, but she is the only witness to a crime police are desperate to solve.

Until they do, a person, or persons, capable of committing what the police say was extreme violence, remains at liberty.

The prosecutor said four-year-old Zeena al-Hilli - who spent eight hours hiding in the car with the bodies before being found by officers - had told French police about the shooting that killed her mother and father during their holiday in the Alps.

Speaking to a press conference on Friday, Mr Maillaud said the brother of Iraqi-born businessman Mr al-Hilli, 50, went to the police after he heard media reports of the deaths - first to ask about al-Hilli's condition, and then, on Friday, to deny reports of a dispute with his brother.

It'll be interesting to get to the bottom of this, and to discover whether the brother was involved in the tragic and horrific shootings. I wish the French police all the best in their investigation, and I hope the shooter spends the rest of their days miserably behind bars.