Museum shooting suspect extradited to Belgium
Man accused of shooting four people in Jewish Museum in Brussels handed over to Belgium by French police.
France has handed over to Belgium the man suspected of carrying out a deadly shooting in May at the Jewish Museum in Brussels.
A spokeswoman for the Belgian police said on Tuesday that Mehdi Nemmouche, a 29-year-old Frenchman of Algerian descent, had been brought from Paris to Brussels.
Belgian media said Nemmouche remained largely silent during four hours of questioning over the deaths of a Jewish couple, a Frenchwoman, and a Belgian man at the museum on May 24.
His lawyer Sebastien Courtoy said his client had seen previous statements leaked to the media.
“He doesn’t want to read his statements the next day in the press,” Courtoy said. “That is the reason, and the only reason, why he’s refusing to answer questions.”
Guarantees sought
France’s final appeals court last week cleared his extradition for questioning over the attack against the central city museum in broad daylight on a Saturday afternoon.
Nemmouche initially dropped an appeal against his extradition after guarantees were made that he would not be sent on to another country such as Israel.
Nemmouche had spent more than a year fighting in Syria.
Nemmouche was arrested on May 30 in the southern French city of Marseille after being spotted on a bus from Brussels.
A revolver and Kalashnikov rifle were found in his luggage.