The witness questioned since Wednesday in the investigation into the quadruple murder of 2012 in Chevaline, Haute-Savoie, was released, his police custody lifted without "any charge" against him, indicated, Thursday, January 13, the prosecution from Annecy.

"The explanations given and the checks carried out made it possible to rule out his possible participation in the facts" and "police custody (...) was lifted today at 5.30 p.m.", indicates the prosecution in a press release specifying that "the investigations continue to identify the perpetrator(s) of the crime".

The case of the "Chevaline killing" has already given rise to thousands of hours of investigation and hearings, tons of documents peeled and four arrests, without having been able to be elucidated to date.

It is one of the great legal enigmas that have held France in suspense for the past fifty years.

On September 5, 2012, a 50-year-old Briton of Iraqi origin, Saad al-Hilli, his 47-year-old wife and his 74-year-old mother-in-law were found dead, with several bullets to the head, in their car on a country road near Chevaline, not far from Lake Annecy.

One of the daughters of the al-Hilli couple was seriously injured while the second, curled up under her mother's legs, miraculously escaped the killing unscathed.

A cyclist from the region, Sylvain Mollier, 45, a probable collateral victim, was also shot dead.

Saad al-Hilli's older brother, who was in conflict with him over paternal inheritance, was taken into police custody on June 24, 2013 in the United Kingdom, then under judicial supervision until January 2014.

Within the al-Hilli family, some tend to favor a murder linked to industrial espionage.

Saad was an engineer specializing in satellites.

The trail of a biker seen near the scene of the crime had been ruled out more than two years after the tragedy when it was established that it was a business manager adept at paragliding, sighted by chance near the scene of the crime.

Crossed by agents of the National Forestry Office (ONF), this man, wearing the goat and a black helmet, had long served as the main suspect.

With AFP

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