Alps murders: Victim's brother reveals row over £1m inheritance before shooting in France
Zaid al-Hilli has denied all involvement and police are not investigating him
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The brother of a British man gunned down in the French Alps with his family has revealed the pair fought over a £1 million inheritance before his death, but insisted he played no part in the horrific killings.
Zaid al-Hilli said police were called following a row with his younger sibling Saad, nearly a year before the fatal shootings in September 2012.
He was arrested on suspicion of the murders in June 2013 but later told that he would face no further action after police found there was insufficient evidence to charge him. No one has ever been charged over the attack.
In an interview with the Daily Mirror, Mr al-Hilli, 56, said he believed there had been a “cover-up” over the deaths and that the killer's target was a motorcyclist who was also shot dead.
He told the newspaper: “Saad was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I think they twisted it around. It's not fair on the families and the victims this went on for such a long time with not a shred of evidence.
“There is a cover-up. I think they know who is behind it, who is the gunman and everything. It's absolute nonsense what they came out with.
“I think they know exactly who was the target, and it was Sylvain Mollier.”
Engineer Saad al-Hilli and his wife Ikbal, who lived in Claygate Surrey, and her mother Suhaila al-Allaf were gunned down on a forest road in Chevaline in September 2012.
Their bodies were discovered in their BMW car by cyclist Brett Martin. The couple's two young daughters survived the attack, while local cyclist Sylvain Mollier was murdered.
While denying any suggestions he was involved in the killings, Zaid al-Hilli, from Chessington, Surrey, admitted he fought with his brother in October 2011 after months of arguments over a £1 million property, which the family owned in Claygate, Surrey.
Saad believed he was entitled to sole ownership of the house following their parents' deaths, and the incident was the last time they spoke directly, he said.
Mr al-Hilli told the Mirror: “He's a much bigger guy than I am. He pinned me down on the bed and he calls his wife and says, 'He's hitting me, he's hitting me'.”
Press Association