The mystery of the Chevaline massacre remains unresolved. Placed in police custody since January 12, a man was released on Thursday at 5.30 p.m. and “no charge has been” brought against him, the Annecy prosecutor said in a statement posted on Twitter.
“The explanations given and the checks carried out made it possible to rule out his possible participation in the facts”, specifies this same document. The suspect’s lawyer had denounced Thursday a custody not “justified” because the latter has “always been keen to participate in the manifestation of the truth”.
[communiqué de presse]
Release from custody by the examining magistrate #Chevaline 🔴No charge is brought against the person in custody. Investigations are continuing to identify the perpetrator (s). pic.twitter.com/Br2lycP8pR– Attorney Annecy (@ProcAnnecy) January 13, 2022
A biker exonerated in 2015
Several newspapers, including The Dauphiné Libéré, indicated that the suspect questioned is a biker who had been exonerated in 2015 after being wanted for two years, but the prosecutor, contacted Thursday by AFP, did not wish to confirm this information, calling as the watch out for “caution” in this matter.
She confirmed, however, that the man detained since Wednesday morning was among four witnesses “put in the situation” and timed on the basis of their statements at the scene of the tragedy a little over three months ago. In the document released this Thursday on Twitter, the magistrate adds that “the investigations continue to identify the perpetrator (s) of the crime”.
Thousands of hours of investigation
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 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.