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Girl in Alps killings out of coma as sister returns to Britain

AFPSeptember 10, 20122:20AM



A SEVEN-year-old British girl seriously wounded in a French Alps shooting has come out of an artificial coma, while her younger sister has returned to Britain, a prosecutor said.

"The little girl has come out of the artificial coma but she is under sedation and her speech is not yet audible," Annecy prosecutor Eric Maillaud told AFP. "She is in a better state of health now."

Her four-year-old sister, another survivor of Wednesday's quadruple murder, is now back in Britain, he added.

Seven-year-old Zainab al-Hilli is a key witness, being the only one who could detail the number of killers and describe them.

Her younger sister, who spent eight hours hidden behind the bodies of her mother and an elderly relative in the backseat of their car, has said she heard shots but saw nothing.

Zainab was put in a state of artificial coma to allow her to recover. She suffered a fractured skull after probably being pistol-whipped and was shot in the shoulder.

She will be questioned by investigators specialising in child witnesses.Zeena al-Hilli was set to return accompanied by an aunt and uncle who travelled to France to bring her home, a source close to the investigation told AFP on condition of anonymity.

She and her seven-year-old sister Zainab were the only survivors of an attack that saw her father Saad al-Hilli, mother Ikbal and an elderly female relative gunned down in their car on a forested Alpine road. A passing cyclist was also killed.

Her uncle Zaid al-Hilli will face a second day of questioning from investigators, the source added. Zaid presented himself to police in Britain following the murder, denying media reports that the brothers were involved in a financial dispute.

British forensics teams began a second day of searches at the family home in Claygate, a quiet, wealthy commuter village some 25 kilometres southwest of London.



Police stand in the garden of the family home. French police are investigating and have called on neighbouring countries to assist their search for the killer.

Saad al-Hilli, a 50-year-old naturalised Briton of Iraqi origin, worked as a mechanical design engineer with the Surrey Satellite Technology firm.

The attack on the family's car took place outside the village of Chevaline on Wednesday, near the lakeside resort of Annecy in southeast France where the Hillis had been on a camping holiday. Zeena survived the attack by hiding under her dead mother's skirt in the backseat and remained motionless inside the vehicle with the corpses for eight hours before police found her.

Police are treating Zainab as a "key witness" and hope she can provide some clues once she wakes up "The investigators want to speak to her as quickly as possible and with the greatest sensitivity possible," Mr Maillaud told reporters in Annecy.



A group of mothers whose children attended a local primary school bring flowers to the Hilli family's British home.

"It is out of the question to go and interview her in any sort of rushed way. She is extremely traumatised. Only the doctors have the ability to say (when she can be interviewed) and until I get the green light I will do nothing," Mr Maillaud said.

He has ruled out getting any information from Zeena. "All that time she was hiding, terrorised behind her mother's legs. She saw nothing," he said. Autopsies revealed that each of the four victims was shot twice in the head. "All four were killed by several bullets and all four were hit twice in the head," Mr Maillaud said.



Cyclists examine the camping trailer where the British family holidaying in the French Alps were murdered. The two young daughters survived, and relatives have arrived in France to comfort them. Picture: Lionel Cironneau

"The whole scene was played out in a very, very short time." Five French investigators led by Colonel Marc de Tarle are in Britain to work on the case, though they did not all visit the house. "This is an inquiry which is turning out to be long and complex," De Tarle said.

Mr Maillaud said the search of the home would help to build up a profile of the family, while stressing that there should be no presumption that they were involved in any activity which might have made them targets. French authorities have expanded the area of their search around the scene while police in neighbouring Switzerland and Italy are also helping.



Gendarmes are gathered in front of the CHU Hospital, in Grenoble, French Alps, where the two daughters of a British-Iraqi family are staying after a shooting near the French Alpine village of Chevaline.

In France meantime, investigators were again combing over the scene of the crime after an extensive search for clues by 25 officers on Saturday failed to turn up any new clues, according to Bertrand Francois, a regional police commander. Investigators were also trying to nail down the exact movements of the Hilli family before the murder, he said.



Family friends weep outside the al-Hilli family home in Claygate, England. Picture: Peter MacDiarmid



British police officers stand outside the home of the family shot dead in their car in the French Alps.