Brussels Jewish Museum Terror Attack Trial Opens

The trial opened Thursday of a Frenchman accused of shooting four people dead at a Jewish museum in Brussels, allegedly the first Syria jihad veteran to stage a terror attack in Europe

Brussels, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Jan, 2019 ) :The trial opened Thursday of a Frenchman accused of shooting four people dead at a Jewish museum in Brussels, allegedly the first Syria jihad veteran to stage a terror attack in Europe.

Mehdi Nemmouche, 33, who was in court, faces a life sentence if convicted of the killings in the Belgian capital on May 24, 2014, following his return from Syria's battlefields.

Both Nemmouche and Nacer Bendrer, a fellow Frenchman aged 30 who allegedly supplied the weapons, are due to hear the 200-page charge sheet against them in the first two days of the trial being held in a Brussels criminal court under heavy security.

Accompanied by two masked police officers, Nemmouche sat down in the dock wearing an orange sweater. He gave his name upon the request of the chief judge.

Bendrer, who could also be jailed for life if convicted, was also in the dock.

Both have previously denied charges of "terrorist murder" for the anti-Semitic 82-second shooting spree.

More than 100 witnesses are due to testify at the trial which is being attended by the victims' families and Jewish community leaders.

Firing a pistol and then an assault rifle, the gunman killed two Israeli tourists, a French volunteer and a Belgian receptionist at the Jewish Museum.

Nemmouche -- born to a family of Algerian origin in the northern French town of Roubaix -- was arrested six days after the attack in the southern French port city of Marseille after arriving on a bus from Brussels.

Investigators say he was carrying a handgun and an assault rifle used in the shooting.