Chevaline victim's "secret" ex-spouse

THE “SECRET ex-husband” of Iqbal al-Hilli, who was one of the victims of the quadruple murder in the French Alps, in September 2012, died in America on exactly the same day as his former wife, it has emerged.

Police in Annecy have revealed that before marrying Saad al-Hilli, his wife Iqbal was briefly married to an American dentist 13 years her senior.

Iqbal met her second husband in Dubai a couple of years after she left America, having divorced her first husband.

Her former spouse, known only as James T, died on September 5 2012 in Natchez, Mississippi. The official cause of death was a heart attack.

On the same day, his ex-wife, her second husband, engineer Saad al-Hilli, her mother-in-law and a French cyclist were gunned down on a mountain road near Chevaline.

One of the al-Hillis daughters was seriously injured and the second escaped detection by hiding under her mother’s clothing.

The coincidence has intrigued investigators, but they have said there is no evidence yet to connect the murders in France to the apparently natural death of Mrs al-Hilli’s ex-husband.

Meanwhile, investigators revealed that they made an arrest in connection with the murders in June, but the suspect was released without charge.

In February, a 48-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of being the motorcyclist seen in the area at the time of the shootings. He, too, was released.

Photo: BFMTV