12th November, 2012
British police said on Monday that they have questioned a Nigerian on suspicion of attempting to defraud a British-Iraqi family who were mysteriously gunned down in the French Alps.
Surrey Police said the man, named by a British newspaper as Nigerian-born Abiodun David John, was arrested three weeks after engineer Saad al-Hilli was found dead in his car with his wife and her elderly mother on September 5.
Detectives are investigating claims that John attempted to access 50-year-old Hilli’s bank accounts by telephone after his death, the Manchester Evening News reported.
Around 100 British and French police officers are investigating the deaths of the family, who lived in an affluent neighbourhood of Surrey, southeast England, and a French cyclist who was shot dead near the BMW estate car.
Hilli’s two young daughters survived the attack.
A police spokesman said a 32-year-old man from the Greater Manchester area was arrested on September 25 in connection with an ongoing fraud investigation, but he was released on bail until November 13.
John denies any wrongdoing, claiming that his phone had been tapped and his home Internet connection accessed from outside.
“When the police came into my house I did not know what they were talking about,” he told the Manchester Evening News. “I am totally innocent.”
Police have investigated several competing theories about why the four victims were killed, ranging from an alleged family dispute over money to Hilli’s work in the satellite industry and his connections in Iraq.
French investigators have denied press reports that they now believe cyclist Sylvain Mollier was the prime target.