The mainstream media for the most part has moved on. But there are a few more gleanings to be had, of perhaps the most interesting comes from the Daily Mirror, which labels al-Hilli an extremist on the grounds that he was against the war in Iraq, disapproved of the behaviour of Israel and had doubts over 9/11 – which makes a great deal of the population “extremist”. But the Mirror has the only mainstream mention I can find of the possibility that Mossad carried out the killings. Given Mr al-Hilli’s profession, the fact he is a Shia, the fact he had visited Iran, and the fact that Israel heas been assassinating scientists connected to Iran’s nuclear programme, this has to be a possibility. There are of course other possibilities, but to ignore that one is ludicrous.
Which leads me to the argument of Daily Mail crime reporter, Stephen Wright, that the French police should concentrate on the idea that this was a killing by a random Alpine madman or racist bigot. Perfectly possible, of course, and the anti-Muslim killings in Marseille might be as much a precedent as Mossad killings of scientists. But why the lone madman idea should be the preferred investigation, Mr Wright does not explain. What I did find interesting from a man who has visited many crime scenes are his repeated insinuations that the French authorities are not really trying very hard to find who the killers were, for example:
the crime scene would have been sealed off for a minimum of seven to ten days, to allow detailed forensic searches for DNA, fibres, tyre marks and shoe prints to take place.
Nearby bushes and vegetation would have been searched for any discarded food and cigarette butts left by the killer, not to mention the murder weapon.
But from what I saw at the end of last week, no such searches had taken place and potentially vital evidence could have been missed. House to house inquiries in the local area had yet to be completed and police had not made specific public appeals for information about the crime. No reward had been put up for information about the shootings.
Behind the scenes, what other short cuts have been taken? Have police seized data identifying all mobile phones being used in the vicinity of the murders that day?
The idea that the French authorities – who are quite as capable as any other of solving cases – are not really trying very hard is an interesting one.
Which leads me to this part of a remarkable article from the Daily Telegraph, which if true points us back towards a hit squad and discounts the ides that there was only one gun:
Claims that only one gun was used to kill everybody is likely to be disproved by full ballistics test results which are out in October.
While the 25 spent bullet cartridges found at the scene are all of the same kind, they could in fact have come from a number of weapons of the same make.
This throws up the possibility of a well-equipped, highly-trained gang circling the car and then opening fire.
Both children were left alive by the killers, who had clinically pumped bullets into everybody else, including five into Mr Mollier.
Zainab was found staggering around outside the car by Brett Martin, a British former RAF serviceman who cycled by moments after the attack, but he saw nobody except the schoolgirl.
Her sister, Zeena, was found unscathed and hiding in the car eight hours later.
Both sisters are now back in Britain, and are believed to have been reunited at a secret location near London.
There are of course a number of hit squad options, both governmental and private, which might well involve iraqi or Iranian interests – on both of which the mainstream media have been very happy to speculate while almost unanimously ignoring Israel.
But what interests me is why the Daily Telegraph choose, in the face of all the evidence, to minimise the horrific nature of the attack by stating that “Both children were left alive by the killers”? Zainab was not left alive by design, she was shot in the chest and her skull was stove in, which presumably was a pretty serious attempt to kill a seven year-old child. The other girl might very well have succeeded in hiding from the killers under her mother’s skirts, as she hid from the first rescuers, and then for eight hours from the police.
The Telegraph article claims to be informed by sources close to the investigation. So they believe it was a group of people, and feel motivated to absolve those people from child-killing. Now what could the Daily Telegraph be thinking?
@ Intp1
6 Sep, 2013 – 1:10 pm
“Press Conf-:
Kim Willsher Guardian: Saad al-Hilli, had an unusual amount of information related to his work with a satellite company.
“With him in France?””
Ah ha! We know SM’s body was searched. We have assumed this was to check if this was to check if he had information on him and to remove it. But what if it was to ensure memory stick had not been transferred TO him?
We know a cloud of secrecy/protection surrounds SSTL yet a CONTRACTOR travels around Europe carrying their classified (?) material?
Next, the information remained in the car. So either it wasn’t the objective, or something interrupted the objective of removing it. There appears to be no evidence of even an attempt however unless the open tail gate is evidence. (Unlikely if all doors still locked)
BUT what if, once assured SM didn’t have any info. they were satisfied the meeting had been frustrated indicative of a scenario in which the purpose of the exercise was not to transfer info. from SM to SAH but the reverse?
Just speculation of course.
@ Bleb 6.49 and http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/06/french-alps-shooting-victim-recording-brother
So the story on bullets and injuries changes again ….
“The gunman, using an obsolete pre-war Swiss-made Luger P06 7.65mm Parabellum, fired 21 times, including twice into the heads of the three members of the Hilli family and five times into the cyclist, Syvain Mollier. The killer shot from outside the vehicle, a maroon-coloured BMW estate, shattering the windows, but without scratching the bodywork. In all, 17 of the shots hit a human target.
With each gun magazine carrying eight bullets, the assassin would have had to recharge the weapon at least twice.
“I would not use the term professional gunman…but he was certainly what I would call a hardened gunman, experienced in situations of stress,” Maillaud said.
He dismissed newspaper reports that the victims were gunned down by a hit-man from the former Yugoslavia as “pure speculation” and said the idea of a “lone wolf” killer or that the Hillis had stumbled across a drug or arms deal as “still being investigated, but is lower down the list of hypotheses”.
“All we know is that there was one killer and he knew what he was doing: he was able to hit a moving target and change magazines, but we have no idea of his exact profile,” Maillaud said.”
Isn’t it possible after a whole year to state factually, accurately and incontrovertibly how many bullets fired, how many injuries, who was hit where how many times and where the cases were found? Obviously not.
Well, could he be “our killer?”
Vitalie Proca, from Moldova, member of a violent Romanian mafia gang.
There are many timely coincidences regarding his killer travelling and e.g. London and he might charge about 2000 euros.
https://reportingproject.net/occrp/index.php/en/ccwatch/cc-watch-indepth/1916-a-murderers-trail
Quotes:
Proca’s next trip outside of Moldova was, by plane, to Verona, the Italian city where Shakespeare based his “Romeo and Juliet”on December 22, 2012. However the next log entry showed Proca arriving at Chișinău’s airport on the 17th of January 2013 from Moscow.
While the border logs establish connections between Proca and other alleged assassins for hire, the entries right before and after the London and Bucharest assassination attempts show a more cautious Proca using public transportation. Proca entered Romania from Moldova on the March 1, 2012 aboard a Scania tourist bus that crossed the border in the Oancea border point, in Galați county. Nineteen days later, on March 20, Proca shot Gorbunțov in London. Three days later Proca returned to Chișinău by airplane from Milan, Italy.The next time he crossed the Romanian border was on the 14th of November 2012 aboard a Renault Espace van. Passenger vans are regularly used by small travel companies between Moldova and Romania. On the 26th of November, Proca allegedly pumped ten bullets into an innocent man who was mistaken for an underworld figure. A week later Proca returned to Moldova in a Volkswagen passenger van through the same border point at Sculeni where he exited Moldova.
In the morning of October 27, 2011, Proca crossed the border from Moldova into Romania through the Sculeni border point at the wheel of an Audi A6 belonging to a Romanian limited liability company, Clandak SRL
On Christmas day, he and three accomplices broke into the house of a family in a neighboring town intending to rob them. He tied the mother of a two year old child and another woman and beat them to death with a metal pipe. The third woman was also tortured and burnt with a clothing iron before passing out, according to the indictment. She survived because Proca believed her to be dead.
In London, Proca shot Gherman Gorbuntsov, 46, a controversial Moldovan-Russian banker, according to law enforcement in Moldova and the United Kingdom. Gorbuntsov, nicknamed the “Black Banker” has been investigated in Moldova for fraud and money laundering. Moldovan police believe a rival gang paid Proca to kill Gorbuntsov. Gorbuntsov survived as well and now lives under around–the-clock police protection
The Romanian police say that the Bucharest attack was a case of mistaken identity. Proca mistook the innocent man for Puiu Mironescu, the alleged leader of a Romanian organized crime group
In November of 2012, a Mercedes pulled up to a home not far from downtown Bucharest, the capital of Romania. As the young driver got out of his car, a thin, blonde man in his early 30s emerged from the shadows and fired a dozen bullets from a Kalashnikov rifle into his chest and head.In an eerily similar scene, six months earlier in London, the same blonde man fired six bullets from a Makarov semi-automatic pistol into a Moldovan-Russian banker as he exited a London taxi near his apartment. As he left, he quietly dropped the gun.Both attacks were classic organized crime hits by a professional hired killer. Police identified him as Vitalie Proca, 33, from the Republic of Moldova.
Price, quotes, for pro killers:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/contract-killer-for-hire-price-from-pounds-1000-upwards-1285524.html
David Veness, Scotland Yard’s Assistant Commissioner in charge of specialist operations, has revealed to The Independent that the police believe that up to 20 hitmen – possibly more – are operating from the south-east of England.The Metropolitan Police’s Organised Crime Group are investigating the contract killers who hire out their services from pounds 1,000 to pounds 20,000 per murder.
http://voices.yahoo.com/cost-professional-hitman-hire-10450045.html
Quote
So what is the cost of professional hitman for hire? In the United States the average going rate appears to be in the $25,000 price range. But take in mind that is average and most people can probably research their local news and find examples in the $500-1,000 range. In most of those cases drugs are involved in the process.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/apr/09/moldova-hitman-london
Moldovan police say Proca was a professional hitman, employed by eastern European gangs to eliminate rivals. The alleged killer was linked to a sprawling mafia network active in Romania and Moldova, police say, and responsible for contract killings, robberies, prostitution, drugs and cigarette smuggling.
Of her son’s alleged trip to London, she said: “I have no idea about any of this. I thought he was at home in Chisinau. I didn’t even know he had a passport.” Did he have any ties to the UK? She smiled wryly then replied: “He can’t speak English. At school he studied French.”
She went on: “We’ve had very little contact since he left school at 17 and moved to Chisinau. Whenever I call their apartment, I get his wife.”
Nine months after the Gorbuntsov hit, he allegedly carried out an assignment in Romania’s capital, Bucharest. Prosecutors say a Romanian mafia gang, the Mararu clan, hired him to wipe out a rival, Dumitru “Puiu” Mironescu. Proca got the wrong target – shooting a young man whose name, car, and registration were similar to Mironescu’s. The man survived 10 Kalashnikov bullets.
Gorbuntsov was also in dispute with two other former business partners. Before he was shot, he told Moscow investigators that his partners were behind a 2009 attempt to murder another Russian banker, Alexander Antonov, who allegedly owed the men $108m. He survived the attack. Antonov’s son Vladimir lives in London, used to own Portsmouth football club and is fighting attempts by Lithuania to extradite him on charges of asset-stripping. He is under armed guard and denies any wrongdoing.
http://www.nineoclock.ro/romanian-authorities-demand-extradition-of-attempted-murderer-vitalie-proca/
Professional killer Proca and his brother in law were involved in the Magnitsky case, too.
https://reportingproject.net/occrp/index.php/en/component/content/article/16-other-articles/1971-the-moldovan-house-of-fraud
@Pink – “… would he be on the phone whilst riding uphill on a racing bike and navigating all those potholes …”
Possibly yes.
I couldn’t do it (I’d probably end up in a ditch while trying to dial the number) but for a pro that would be nothing. If he was a keen amateur then maybe.
http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/mar/29/shot-russian-bankers-wife-appeal
As you can read above, Proca did not take specific care about whom he killed. He already mixed up his defined targets with innocent victims before and he had killed the wrong ones.
There is a “window” between his March 2012 and his November 2012 assassinations. What had he done in september 2012? Where had he been then?
Gorbuntsov insists that Vitalie Proca is likely one of Putin’s professional killers:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2156344/German-Gorbuntsov-I-know-tried-kill-says-Russian-banker.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2213939/Back-feet-Defiant-Russian-banker-German-Gorbuntsov-shot-times-hitman-recovering-hospital-seven-months-later.html
Proca’s brother in law, lives a wealthy life in Florida together with his girlfriend Natalia Muriavova.
She also is originally from moldova and she has a facebook site and there she is telling about her wealth in florida and showing photos of their villa and rolls royce car.
Their florida company (assumingly used for money laundering of the hermitage capital fraud/magnitsky) was dissolved in 2012.
http://www.florida-companies-info.com/davitean-l-l-c-twe7/
Pro killer Proca and his mafia clan are quite interesting.
Sorry about that first report of explosion. Its an old one with today’s date at the top. If there was an edit function I would delete but I can’t so please ignore although it does emphasise the continuing threat from Ireland to the mainland.
That was this (red face):
“On 3 August 2001 the Real IRA detonated a car bomb containing 45 kg of explosives in Ealing Broadway, West London, England, injuring seven people. Debris caused by the bomb spread more than 200 m (220 yd).”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_Ealing_bombing
and I think I’ve made a balls-up with that Carlton Gdns one as well. Looks like it was this one:
16 May 2011 Last updated at 19:51 Share this pageEmailPrint
ShareFacebookTwitter
Bomb warning received in London
Police man a cordon on the Mall outside Buckingham Palace
Streets around the Mall were shut for five hours on Monday morning”
Jon it would be a great relief if you wiped that “Tim V
7 Sep, 2013 – 1:33 am” before James gets wind of it (LOL) or he will never let me forget it. Never again will I use Google search without checking out the date to which it refers!!!!!!!!!!!!
HOWEVER the two last incidents are definitely CURRENT. The West Moseley explosion is not explained as yet and may have an accidental explanation.
[Mod: deleted one item]
Apologies everyone. It’s very late is my only excuse. 🙁 Think it’s time I retired.
If I’m not mistaken (!!!!!!) Spurfield, West Molesey is only about 3 miles from Oaken Lane, Claygate. Just mention it in passing and probably of no significance. (Trying hard to redeem my blunder!)
Pink
6 Sep, 2013 – 8:39 pm
Well spotted about the release of info from the US.
I see in the same article that Maillaud is no longer in charge, just the spokesman now, so who is leading the investigation ?
“The prosecutor – who is no longer leading the investigation but remains its chief spokesman -”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/alhilli-killings-one-year-on-mystery-surrounds-the-quadruple-murder-in-the-alps-8801964.html
Just seen another little detail a friend in Ticino.
“This legacy was obsessed, told the court one of his old friends living in Ticino. Saad will not have time to come to Geneva he died on September 5”
“29 letters rogatory
The prosecutor has executed 29 letters rogatory. “It is extremely rare in one case!” Homicide The Geneva Centre and police cooperation have been involved. The surveys were deployed in the cantons of Vaud, Fribourg, Zurich, or in Ticino.”
http://www.tdg.ch/geneve/france-voisine/cur-affaire-largent-place-
geneve/story/24316324
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ticino
Old story 05/10/2012 but it says he did visit just for the record.
“Swiss prosecutors have confirmed that a British man of Iraqi origin killed with three members of his family visited a bank in Geneva shortly before he was murdered, according to a Swiss news report.”
http://www.france24.com/en/20121005-swiss-bank-link-alps-murders-annecy-chevaline-claygate-shooting-al-hilli-investigation
http://www.lematin.ch/faits-divers/liquides/story/19874889
“It has long been established that Saad Al-Hilli had contacted the Geneva private bank in summer 2012 and had to go to Geneva in September. September 5 last year at around 3:40 p.m.,”
Thanks to Oui at Mzt for the links.
@Katie I don’t know I assume Vinnemann it was mentioned that a woman was at the press conference.
http://www.lessorsavoyard.fr/Actualite/Fil_Infos_regionales/article_1764952.shtml
http://www.ledauphine.com/haute-savoie/2013/09/06/tuerie-de-chevaline-le-conflit-d-heritage-reste-la-piste-privilegiee
http://www.nineoclock.ro/bogdan-and-razvan-mararu-placed-under-preventive-arrest/
Feb 14th 2013: Brothers Bogdan and Razvan Mararu, detained on Tuesday evening for instigating attempted murder, were placed under 29-day preventive arrest by the Bucharest Court yesterday, through a decision that admitted the request filed by prosecutors. The decision is not final and can be attacked at the Bucharest Court of Appeals. The two brothers were detained after investigators established that they paid Vitalie Proca to kill Ioan Dumitru Mironescu.
At the same time, investigators have shown that the Mararu brothers gave Proca the necessary elements to identify the victim and were permanently in contact with him, through middlemen, before and after the hit took place.
Sounds as if we had heard that last sentence before, doesnt it?
Banker Gorbuntsov was shot in London by Proca in March 2012. Wasnt that about the time when Saad became nervous and afraid?
” Putin’s professional killer Vitalie Proca”. Proca from Moldova doesnt ask any questions. He simply kills everybody who is at the scene at a certain time. He doesnt speak English but he speaks French, Russian and Romanian. Proca already “mixed up” people whom he should kill and he killed the wrong ones. He does not care.
Putin’s Pro killer Proca and his brother in law (who lives a wealthy life in Florida), whose name is David Davitean, took part in the Hermitage Capital/Magnitsky case.
Proca was “arrested” in Russia in spring 2013 but he isnt being extradicted by Russia to Romania nor to the UK although both countries had signed such legal requests.
Without Marilyn’s site it would be tricky to keep up with the french side I am very grateful for their input .
http://www.marilynztomlins.com/articles/chevaline-saad-al-hilli-sylvain-mollier-murder-most-foul/#sthash.ekVsKseY.2zGESp9S.dpbs
Graphic chart of Vitalie Proca’s 2011/2012 assassinations and his whereabouts and his middlemen.
https://reportingproject.net/occrp/images/stories/EFT/murderes_info.jpg
IMHO, Chevaline is still missing in that chart yet
CCTV images of Procu from London, taken just before he shot Gorbuntsov in Canary Wharf. There is also a video of his arrest in Moscow.
http://m.gandul.info/stiri/portret-de-killer-cine-este-moldoveanul-vitalie-proca-atacatorul-din-vitan-cautat-de-interpol-si-scotland-yard-10548757
Ion Gusan, aka “Nicu Patron”, the alleged leader of a Moldovan gang, hired Proca to carry out the London hit, they add. But the Patron group were brokers. The order to shoot Gorbuntsov came from Moscow and from one of the world’s most dangerous mafia groups, the Solntsevskaya gang , the Guardian and the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) has learned.
Use google translate. This is VERY interesting stuff and connects Boris Berezovsky, Litvinenko, the Magnitsky case, Romanian Mafia and the professional killer Procu throughout a Scotland Yard investigation.
http://m.romanialibera.ro/stire-298832.html
http://www.ofelio.com/show?id=47322&lang=en
Romania has requested Proca’s extradition. The UK has yet to follow suit. In February detectives from Scotland Yard met their Romanian and Moldovan counterparts in Bucharest. Moldova’s interior minister, Dorin Recean, who has discussed Proca with Moscow, told the Guardian his investigation would follow the evidence, wherever it led. But what if the trail went to well-connected figures? “I’m optimistic whoever is connected with these crimes will face prosecution. Maybe not tomorrow, but in the medium term,” he said.
Moldovan police say Proca was a professional hitman, employed by eastern European gangs to eliminate rivals. The alleged killer was linked to a sprawling mafia network active in Romania and Moldova, police say, and responsible for contract killings, robberies, prostitution, drugs and cigarette smuggling.
Romanian law enforcement officers link Galeanu to a Romanian mafia group, the Corduneni gang, whose members have been charged with organised crime and money-laundering. The logs also show links between Proca and another Romanian, Viktor Dragos Nita. Nita is accused of aiding the killers of Valer Damian, a controversial businessman from the Romanian town of Bacau, who was tortured and murdered in August 2011. They also reveal connections between Proca and his brother-in-law David Davitean, who has been charged in Moldova with racketeering.
Remember: Vitalie Proca was the attempted killer of banker German Gorbuntsov in London.
http://www.rumafia.com/material.php?id=486
http://thefinanser.co.uk/fsclub/2012/11/how-the-russian-mafia-use-the-banking-system-including-britains.html
Quotes
Antonov and fellow shareholder Raimondas Baranauskas supposedly used the Swiss banks HSBC Private Bank and Julius Baer & Co to transfer Snoras assets, resulting in his arrest over here in November 2011.
These are not the only Antonov shenanigans, as he has also been caught up in a storm in Sweden over his attempt to get a slice of the action with Saab, although he denies all allegations of wrongdoings saying it’s all politically motivated.
… with a father gunned down over the Saab deal and almost killed, I suspect there’s more to it than that.
For example, back in 2010 a website dedicated to exposing the Russian Mafia wrote an interesting article about the Antonovs, saying that the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation were investigating the fraudulent transfer of ten billion roubles (around $320 million) from Investbank to support their acquisition interests in Saab.
Alexander Antonov was shot five times in the stomach, once in the chest, and one of his fingers was blown off but, despite the brutal shooting, Anatov survived albeit disabled.
According to the rumafia website, these assets were transferred to the managers of the Russian Railways by holding German and Larisa at gunpoint, with threats made to their families and promises to burn down their house unless they signed the documents of transfer, which they did.
Another fleeing oligarch, the Georgian Badri Patarkatsishvili, – a partner of fellow exile Boris Berezovsky – was found dead in 2008 in his Surrey mansion.
Thanks,Pink.
“No links could also be established between Mollier activity (he worked for Areva) and Saad al-Hilli (engineer in satellites).
The second, which is precisely in connection with the profession of Saad al-Hilli, leads to industrial espionage. “We know that it had in its possession more documents than he should have from his employment”, explained the Attorney.
“Unfortunately, he worked extensively with many foreign companies, which greatly complicates us the task.”
Finally, the last, that Lieutenant-Colonel Benoît Vinnemann did not put forward, insisting that “the means were distributed evenly between all working hypotheses”, led to the conflict (“hatred” claimed Eric Maillaud) which existed between Saad al-Hilli and his elder brother Zaid.
This one, which was heard by the British authorities but not French, managed the heritage of the Patriarch of the family (a house in Claygate, two apartments in London, an apartment in Spain, a comfortable home in Baghdad as well as an account in Switzerland, all estimated between 3 and 5 million euros) for several years until the latter’s death in 2011. It was he who should have been the only inherit these properties. However, Saad, during a trip to Iraq with his brother in 2004, realized that his elder had diverted part of the family money. After having managed to amend the testament of his father, he now intended to demonstrate this.
Furthermore, in Saint-Jorioz, where the family was vacationing at the time murders, gendarmes found in the family caravan many documents for this demonstration as well as several audio recordings suggesting that Saad was afraid of his brother ”
http://www.lessorsavoyard.fr/Actualite/Fil_Infos_regionales/article_1764952.shtml
I don’t believe this killing was ordered by Zaid, why do the police not see that, Zaid knew their were two daughters who would inherit before him…….I cannot believe even the bloodiest minded person would want to kill 3 adults & two children……..his brother & nieces, just for money.
The theory should still be that the crime was committed to silence Saad about something.
As for all the paperwork Saad took on holiday, wasn’t he said to be a workaholic ?
Pink
7 Sep, 2013 – 10:21 am is that report saying that SAH was meant to be at a Geneva Bank appointment at the precise time he was killed or have I misunderstood?
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/french-alps-murders-saad-al-hilli-2256526 reports
“transfer of technologies a key line of enquiry”; “industrial espionage as a possible cause of the killing”; “SAH had in his possession a lot more material than his job would justify”; “this relates to foreign countries could also indicate the involvement of secret services”; lines of enquiry being pursued in 23 countries including Iraq where the Al Hilli’s still have a large house”.
Well it would seem EM is slowly coming round to admitting what we and most others have surmised from the start. I suppose better late than never but what of French credibility in general and EM’s in particular by virtue of the long drawn out attempt to obscure the truth?
EDIT:
Katie
7 Sep, 2013 – 3:35 pm
‘There’. not ‘their’.