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Museum 'shooter' extradited

July 29, 2014

French authorities have handed over to Belgium the man suspected of carrying out the May 24 fatal shooting at Brussels’ Jewish Museum. He was arrested in Marseilles roughly a week after the deadly incident.

https://p.dw.com/p/1Cltt
Polizeifoto - Mehdi Nemmouche
Image: picture-alliance/dpa

Belgian police confirmed that Mehdi Nemmouche had arrived in Belgium on Tuesday afternoon. The 29-year-old French-Algerian national is the sole suspect behind a deadly shooting at the Jewish Museum in Brussels, which left four people dead.

"He will be interrogated," Belgian police spokesperson Tine Hollevoet told news agency AFP.

DPA news agency reported that Nemmouche would appear before a Belgian magistrate later in the day, citing Belgian media.

Arrested in Marseille

French authorities arrested the 29-year-old suspect in Marseille roughly a week after the shooting. He was found in possession of a Kalashnikov rifle, wrapped in the flag for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), as well as a handgun.

Nemmouche had originally opposed extradition from France, wary of being handed over to Israeli authorities. Two of the victims of the May 24 shooting were an Israeli couple. A French woman and a Belgian man were also killed.

The 29-year-old suspect has reportedly served time in France before. According to French prosecutor Francois Molins Nemmouche had travelled to Syria "three weeks after he was freed" to join Jihadist group in the country's civil war, where he remained for roughly one year.

kms/ipj (AFP, dpa)