Fyra ihjälskjutna i brittisk bil vid fransk sjö (2012-09-05)

THE British dad killed in the French Alps massacre put a block on his late father’s will, it emerged yesterday.
Documents seen by The Sun show Saad Al-Hilli had taken out a “caveat” — a formal notice or warning — stopping terms going ahead until February.
Caveat 58692 essentially halts his brother Zaid’s claim over half of their father Kadhem’s fortune until unknown issues are resolved.
The papers also reveal that wealthy Kadhem — who was living in Malaga, Spain — had been missing for six days before he was found dead in August last year.

Definition of CAVEAT

1
a : a warning enjoining one from certain acts or practices
b : an explanation to prevent misinterpretation
c : a modifying or cautionary detail to be considered when evaluating, interpreting, or doing something
2
: a legal warning to a judicial officer to suspend a proceeding until the opposition has a hearing

There was also a clear indentation made by the Al-Hillis' car in the embankment. It looked as if the estate car had reversed so hard into to the forest side that the rear had climbed a couple of feet up the steep slope. There was also a gash in the car park, roughly filled with pebbles by the gendarmerie.

This fitted the aerial pictures of the BMW published yesterday. The back of the car is seen hard against the embankment, with one of its rear wheels sunk deeply into the ground. A poor piece of parking? Or a desperate attempt to turn the car and flee in terror? A senior gendarmerie officer said yesterday that the marks in the car park were an "important part of the investigation". He added: "The marks have been studied carefully. We can all speculate. I cannot say any more."

The Mail on Sunday has discovered that in December Mr Al-Hilli visited a sub-division of SSTL called DMC International Imaging, which has recently signed a contract with the Chinese to help map the country via satellite imagery. DMC also has a lucrative satellite-mapping deal with Russia and is working with the Foreign Office in Afghanistan to monitor illicit opium poppy cultivation.

Yesterday Claude Moniquet, director of the Brussels-based European Strategic Intelligence and Security Centre (ESISC), said: 'Satellite technology, along with drone technology, is the new frontier of science and a market which is worth billions of pounds.

'Competition in a corporate sense is intense, as there is the potential to make a lot of money with each development ahead of your rivals.

'Mr Al-Hilli's company was also a renowned leader in satellite mapping, and if it was secretly doing this in countries which would not welcome such an intrusion, then we have a possible motive.'

He said another area French police may explore is whether a Middle Eastern group may have been involved. 'The Iranians, for example, are desperate to acquire cutting-edge technology which they cannot legally obtain. If somehow they were either getting it from Mr Al-Hilli, or hoped to get it from him and he refused, they would not think twice about killing him.

'Also bear in mind that the Iranian intelligence service works in tandem with many private companies and this is a very lucrative market.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2200388/Did-French-Alps-murder-victims-secret-work-space-satellite-contract-make-prime-assassination-target. html

The Al-Hilli family were wealthy members of Iraq’s Shia majority which was oppressed during the regime of Sunni Muslim Saddam Hussein.

At the small car park at Combre d’Ire, four miles from Chevaline village, the only sound is that of a fast-flowing stream.
Footpaths and hiker trails lead off and upwards into the fragrant gloom; a barrier prevents private cars from going any further up the pot-holed track.
The car park is a dead end. A perfect place for ambush and murder – the nearest CCTV camera is 19 miles away.

The unidentified British cyclist told detectives that before he came across the bodies he saw a green 4x4 and a motorbike speeding towards the spot.

A young woman who was also in the area has told police that she saw a ‘white Peugeot 206 or 306’ a few minutes later, along the same road.
She said it was being driven extremely fast by ‘a man in a black shirt’ who had to swerve suddenly to avoid hitting her car.

However security officials in London now believe that – based on the evidence so far – there is no reason to link the assassination to any past or present domestic counter-terrorism operation or suspected terrorist activity. We shall see.