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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
World
Chiara Giordano

Mehdi Nemmouche: Suspected Isis fighter guilty of 'terrorist murders' of four people at Jewish Museum in Brussels

A Frenchman suspected of fighting for Isis in Syria has been found guilty of the "terrorist murders" of four people at a Jewish Museum in Brussels.

Mehdi Nemmouche, 33, faces up to 30 years in prison after he gunned down an Israeli couple and two museum employees in the Belgium capital on 24 May 2014.

His accomplice Nacer Bendrer, 30, was also convicted of supplying the revolver and assault rifle used in the killings.

CCTV footage from the museum’s entrance showed a man wearing a baseball cap and armed with a revolver shoot the couple in the backs of their heads at point-blank range. 

He then walked down a corridor and fired into offices at the two other victims, before pulling out an assault rifle to spray the area.

The entire incident was over within just 82 seconds, after which the killer walked off without looking back.

Nemmouche, who prosecutors claim fought alongside Isis extremists in Syria, was captured in France almost a week later and found to be in possession of the weapons used in the killing.

French authorities also allege he was one of the jihadists who kept four French journalists hostage until they were freed in April 2014 in Syria.

Nemmouche sat in court impassively flanked by three police officers in masks as the verdict was read out.

A court artist drawing of Mehdi Nemmouche (Yves Capelle/Reuters)

Presiding judge Laurence Massart told the court: “Mehdi Nemmouche is guilty of committing four terrorist murders.”

He faces up to 30 years behind bars and is expected to be sentenced on Monday.

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