French Islamic Militant Who Attacked Jewish Museum in 2014 Sentenced to Life

By Darryl Coote

Security was on alert at the Brussels Palace of Justice during the sentencing Monday of Mehdi Nemmouche, the man convicted last week of killing four people at the Jewish Museum of Belgium in 2014. Photo by Stephanie Lecocq/EPA-EFE

(UPI) -- A French man convicted of killing four people at a Jewish museum in 2014 has been sentenced to life in prison.

Mehdi Nemmouche, a 33-year-old militant who'd previously fought in Syria for the Islamic State, was found guilty last week of "terrorist murder" for the anti-Semitic massacre of four people at the Jewish Museum of Belgium on May 24, 2014. It was the first terrorist attack on European soil by an individual who had fought for the group in Syria.

He was arrested in Marseilles, France, six days after the shooting. Shortly after, he was extradited to Belgium to stand trial.

When asked for comment following his sentencing Monday, Nemmouche said, "life goes on," BBC News reported.

Accomplice Nacer Bender, 30, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for having helped plan the attack and supply Nemmouche with the weapons he used during the crime.

"I am ashamed to have crossed paths with [Nemmouche]," Bender told the court following sentencing. "He is not a man, he is a monster."

And you are a monster's assistant!

Nemmouche had claimed to be innocent, and his lawyer attempted to paint his client during the two-month trial as having been set up by foreign intelligence agencies in a conspiracy targeting Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency.

Nemmouche also faces separate kidnapping charges in France for detaining four French journalists from June 2013 to April 2014 in Islamic State-controlled Aleppo, Syria, prosecutors said.

Jury Finds French Jihadist Guilty of Killing Israeli Couple and 2 Museum Staffers

Thomson Reuters 

Mehdi Nemmouche allegedly fought alongside jihadist rebels in Syria before returning to Europe.

(Belgian federal police/Associated Press)

A Belgian court says a Frenchman suspected of working for the Islamic State group in Syria has been found guilty of gunning down four people at a Jewish museum in 2014, making him the first European foreign fighter to be convicted of terror offences. 

Judge Laurence Massart read the jury's verdict issued Thursday that said "Mehdi Nemmouche is guilty of committing four terrorist murders."

An Israeli couple and two staffers at the museum in Brussels were killed on May 24, 2014. 

The museum shooting crystalized fears that European extremists would use combat experience from places like Syria to sow terror back home.

This unfortunate report doesn't make clear when Nemmouche went to Syria or when he returned, although it appears he went and returned before May 2014, that is pretty early in the ISIS assault on Syria and was when they were winning. It seems odd that he would leave when they appeared to have the caliphate in site. But then, radical Islamists aren't know for making logical decisions.

The 33-year-old Nemmouche sat impassively while the verdict was read.

Nemmouche could face up to 30 years in prison. The judge is expected to impose the sentence Friday. 

An alleged accomplice, Nacer Bendrer, was found guilty of supplying the revolver and assault rifle used in the slayings.