French officials are examining a Luger pistol recovered from the depths of Lake Annecy, which could be linked to the murders of a British‑Iraqi family and a French cyclist 14 years ago.
The 2012 Alps killings claimed the lives of three members of a British‑Iraqi family and a French citizen who were shot on a mountain road near the southern tip of Lake Annecy.
The victims were Saad al‑Hilli, aged 50; his wife Iqbal, 47; her mother Suhaila al‑Allaf, 74; and French cyclist Sylvain Mollier, 45. All were found dead on the road.
Two daughters of the al‑Hillis survived. Their younger daughter, aged four, was discovered hidden under her mother’s legs in the rear footwell, while the elder daughter, seven, suffered a shoulder shot and a head wound.
French prosecutors in Nanterre, a western Paris suburb, told AFP on Monday that the Luger pistol was retrieved from the lake by British tourists swimming there on 20 August. It shows similarities to the weapon used in the 2012 attack.
Police in both France and the United Kingdom have examined al‑Hilli’s past in Iraq, where he worked as an engineer on sensitive projects, as well as his professional activities at the time of the killing, to identify a possible motive.
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