[h=1]Alps murders: ex-policeman arrested in village near scene of al-Hilli shootings[/h] Police investigating murder of three members of British family and French cyclist arrest man described as 'arms collector'
An artist's impression of a motorcyclist seen close to the spot where the shootings took place in September 2012. Photograph: EPA
French police on Tuesday arrested a 48-year-old former policeman in a French Alpine village close to the layby where the Iraqi-born British engineer Saad al-Hilli, two members of his family and a French cyclist were murdered.
The arrest came after police issued an efit in November of a man wearing an unusual model of motorcycle helmet.
The motorcyclist was spotted near the scene on an isolated road near Annecy where Hilli, 50, his wife Iqbal, 47, and her mother Suhaila al-Allaf, 74, were murdered on 5 September 2012. A passing cyclist, Sylvain Mollier, 45, was also shot dead.
The 48-year-old man, who was arrested as he left his home in the village of Lathuile close to Chevaline, where the murder took place, has not been identified.
Media reports in France, citing sources close to the case, said he was fired from his job as a municipal policeman last June in Menthon-Saint-Bernard, south of Annecy. He was described by Le Monde as a "taciturn" loner and "arms collector".
Weapons were reportedly found at his home, where he lives with his girlfriend. Police were carrying out other searches and examining the garden of a house in another nearby village, Tailloires.
It is the first arrest by French police, who have teamed up with British colleagues to investigate the murder.
Eric Maillaud, the Annecy prosecutor, cautioned that it was "impossible to say" at this stage whether the detained person may have anything to do with the killing. He does not have any connection to the Hilli family. Maillaud also suggested that more arrests may follow.
In a statement, he said: "As part of the inquiry into the Chevaline killings in which four people were shot dead and a little girl was seriously injured, a 48-year-old man living in Haute-Savoie was brought in for questioning by Chambery police this morning and placed in police custody.
"This questioning, which may not be the only one, is the result of witness statements collected after the release on 4 November of an artist's impression of a motocyclist seen near the scene of the crime who investigators were actively looking for. In the interests of the importance of presuming innocence and in the absence of a direct link between this man and those involved in the incident, no further information about his identity will be given."
The arrest could help to shed light on the murder mystery. Police are also trying to find the driver of a dark BMW four-wheel-drive vehicle, which was noticed by a forestry agent on the mountain road at about the time of the murder.
Hilli, who was staying on the shore of Lake Annecy on a caravan site with his family, was shot after parking his BMW in a layby on a wooded road above Chevaline. One of his daughters was seriously wounded in the attack. The other, aged four, survived by hiding under the skirt of her mother, who was on the back seat. The bodies were discovered by a British cyclist, retired RAF pilot Brett Martin, who has a second home in Lathuile.
Detectives were puzzled by the weapon used in the attack: an antique 7.65mm Luger P06 handgun, issued to the Swiss army and police in the 1920s and 1930s. The use of such a weapon would appear to rule out a professional killing, and investigators had turned their attention to gun collectors.
The arrest came after police interviewed about 40 witnesses who came forward after an artist's impression was released in November of the motorcyclist who was seen in the area at about the same time between 3.15pm and 3.40pm shortly before the killings. Only 8,000 such helmets have been manufactured. It was recognised by witnesses because of its unusual side fastening under the chin.
The arrest may indicate a shift in the investigation back to local area. A dozen suspects whose phones had been detected in the area at the time of the murder have been interviewed and ruled out, according to media reports.
Until now, French police appeared to focus on a theory that the murders were motivated by a family dispute over money. Hilli's brother Zaid was arrested by British police but released from bail last month when Surrey detectives deemed there was not enough evidence to charge him.
Zaid al-Hilli, 54, from Chessington, Surrey, said he was relieved, but French investigators said they still had "many questions" to ask him.
Speculation about the murders has been rife, ranging from a secret service hit job because of Saad al-Hilli's job work on satellite technology, to an Iraqi connection, or a link to the French cyclist, who worked in the nuclear industry.
The Hilli brothers were alleged to have been locked in an inheritance dispute centred on the £825,000 home in Claygate, Surrey, where Saad and his family lived after their mother died in 2003.
Zaid, who inherited half the property, claimed that in 2011 his brother began to demand his share of the house "there and then" and pinned him down during a row. The two men never spoke again except through lawyers, but Zaid denied rumours that he had threatened to kill his brother.