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Panorama: Nov 2

Panorama screens its investigation into a murder case in the French Alps in 2012.

2013-11-01_0108Tomorrow on BBC World News, Panorama screens its investigation into a murder case in the French Alps in 2012.

One year after a series of brutal killings in the French Alps, with exclusive access to eyewitnesses and investigators, BBC Panorama has examined how the British al-Hilli family and a French cyclist were brutally murdered by a hit man, who left a young girl for dead.

Jane Corbin revisits the scene of the murder and speaks with a French forestry worker who was there that day, in his first media interview. Shortly before the murders took place he saw a man on a motorbike who the French investigators believe was the killer and also a man driving a British BMW X5, 4×4 who may be an accomplice.

Just minutes before the shooting, the forestry worker was coming down the mountain. As he passed the parking spot at le Martinet where the murder took place, he saw a man on a white and black motorbike.

“When I arrived …there was a motorbike pulling into the parking area. I passed the parking and the motorbike was on the left here. I remember it well it was white and black, with panniers on either side and the man, the rider was all in black.”

He also reveals that he passed another vehicle minutes later, driving up the mountain. This one was British and driven by someone who seems to have been an accomplice.

“The car was a BMW 4×4, X5, grey metallic, in good condition, clean, it looked pretty new. It was a right hand drive, English. I didn’t get much of a look at him but the driver was slightly bald and he had dark skin, no glasses.”

Ten minutes later two of his colleagues driving down the same road saw the motorbike above the parking area at Le Martinet beyond which motor vehicles were not allowed to go. They spoke to him and he lifted his helmet.

“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 aren’t 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…They saw the motorcyclist’s face – he had a bit of a beard.”

It would seem that at least two people acted together – one to do surveillance, the other the hit man.

Zaid al-Hilli, brother to Saad, is suspected by French investigators of being behind the murders. He defends himself on Panorama in his first television interview.

He accuses the police of being part of a local cover up and believes French cyclist, Sylvain Mollier was the intended target. He said French police shut down their investigation in to the murdered cyclist too soon.

In Ugine, where Sylvain Mollier came from, some people believe there is another possible theory. Mollier had two children and was divorced from his wife. He had a new fiancée from a wealthy family who some think disapproved of him. There have been reports that it was his fiancée’s father who suggested Mollier take that route that day.

Zaid believes the cyclist could be the real reason for the murder.

“They are covering up for someone in France in that region and they know it.”

“Sylvain Mollier was involved in family disputes and he was an outsider to this rich family. There is something more to it locally… most crime has local roots.”

He also accuses the French police of using him as a scapegoat and being racist: “They focused attention on to us and it has… I have to be very blunt, it has (a) racist sort of background to it. Our background is Middle Eastern, it’s Arab, it’s Muslim and that is very convenient.”

However the French prosecutor, Eric Maillaud, insists he is sure the cyclist was there by accident and remains convinced there was a feud between the brothers.

“The police have investigated Sylvain Mollier’s family as far as they could… there is nothing to link Mollier to this murder,” he said.

“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.”

Panorama has discovered there were definite tensions between the brothers. One night in October 2011 when they were still living together at the Claygate house in Surrey, the police were called to the house.

Talking about the incident, Zaid has brushed off the suggestion it was anything serious: “I wanted something from him and he wouldn’t give me a copy of it, or return my copy…it was a, more of a discussion, (a) heated discussion about it and he called them (the police). I don’t know why he had to call them and they weren’t interested.”

Eric Maillaud said: “Saad al-Hilli was afraid of his brother and had changed the locks at the house and fitted a new alarm.”

The French investigators say they will solve the mystery of the Annecy murders however long it takes.

Panorama: Murder in the Alps will be broadcast on BBC World News on Saturday November 2 at 1:10pm.

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