The brother of a man who was gunned down alongside his wife and mother-in-law in France today accused police of being “racist” and “incompetent”.
Zaid al-Hilli was arrested over the deaths but six months later was told he would face no further action.
He said he was turned into a scapegoat because investigators saw the family as “a light touch”.
His brother Saad al-Hilli, 50, was shot with his wife Iqbal, 47, and his mother-in-law Suhaila al-Allaf, on 5 September 2012, along with French cyclist Sylvain Mollier.
The couple’s two young daughters survived the attack.
Mr al-Hilli, 54, from Chessington, who was arrested on suspicion of murder in June last year, accused the police of a witch-hunt and of resorting to “smears and lies”, saying they had ruined the investigation by failing to secure the crime scene.
“Our background is Middle Eastern and I think they set out to protect the white French families”, he said.
He said while he and his brother had their differences over their inheritance, it was “illogical” that he should be accused of the murder.
“I love my brother, I love his family, I love my nieces, I would never harm them,” he said, adding that police had now established “that there is nothing to link our family with the crime”.
The French authorities have refused to comment.
Saad al-Hilli and his family lived in Claygate, Surrey, and were on holiday with Mrs al-Hilli’s mother, who lived in Sweden, at the time of the attack near Lake Annecy.
More than 100 police officers in France and the UK have been involved in investigating the case and about 800 people have been interviewed.
Mr al-Hilli has now called for a public inquiry into the case saying the authorities botched the investigation.
“In July this year we were told that the French police had found a passport and they claim that they found a passport in my brother’s jacket,” he said.
“It seems that the jacket has been in the lab for a year-and-a-half and no-one bothered to search it so what other evidence have they missed?”
