FRANCE/FILE: Brussels Jewish museum shooting suspect Mehdi Nemmouche shown in police mug shots from a previous arrest

Record ID: 324071

  • Title: FRANCE/FILE: Brussels Jewish museum shooting suspect Mehdi Nemmouche shown in police mug shots from a previous arrest
  • Date: 2nd June 2014
  • Summary: TOURCOING, FRANCE (JUNE 2, 2014) (REUTERS) SIGN FOR TOWN OF TOURCOING WHERE NEMMOUCHE GREW UP ROUNDABOUT IN TOURCOING BUILDINGS IN TOURCOING HOUSES IN TOURCOING ROUBAIX, FRANCE (JUNE 2, 2014) (REUTERS) JOURNALISTS WAITING OUTSIDE OFFICE OF LAWYER SOULIFA BADAOUI, WHO WORKED AS LAWYER FOR NEMMOUCHE IN PAST SIGN READING (French): 'LAWYERS, SOULIFA BADAOUI, LAWYER' BADAOUI LEAVING OFFICE, JOURNALISTS TRYING TO SPEAK TO HER (SOUNDBITE) (French) LAWYER SOULIFA BADAOUI, WHO WORKED AS LAWYER FOR NEMMOUCHE IN PAST, SAYING: "(Nemmouche's) family just does not want to be stigmatised, quite simply, there you go. (JOURNALIST SAYING OFF CAMERA: 'I do not want to overwhelm them, it's just...) I imagine it is not a question of overwhelming them, the poor things." BADAOUI GETTING INTO CAR CAR DRIVING AWAY
  • Embargoed: 17th June 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France
  • Country: France
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVACF0NRURK0KWYJ39LZLBEZ35CI
  • Story Text: Photographs showing French suspect Mehdi Nemmouche, who was arrested for the killing of three people at Brussels' Jewish Museum, in police mug shots from a previous arrest were obtained by Reuters on Monday (June 2).
    Nemmouche was detained on Friday after a random check at a bus terminal in the French city of Marseille showed he was carrying a Kalashnikov rifle, another gun and ammunition similar to those used in the shooting last weekend, French and Belgian prosecutors said.
    The 29-year-old Frenchman is from the northern city of Roubaix and grew up in the nearby town of Tourcoing. He served five jail terms in France before spending most of 2013 in Syria, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins told reporters on Sunday.
    European governments have become increasingly worried that citizens going to fight in Syria will import Islamist militancy on their return.
    An Israeli couple and a French woman were killed when a man entered the Jewish Museum in the centre of the Belgian capital on May 24 and opened fire with a Kalashnikov. A Belgian man remains in critical condition in hospital.
    A 30-second video clip from the museum's security cameras released by police showed a man wearing a dark cap, sunglasses and blue jacket entering the building, taking a rifle out of a bag and shooting into a room before calmly walking out. The attack evoked memories of the killing of four Jews in 2012 at a school in France by Mohamed Merah, a gunman inspired by al Qaeda.
    Nemmouche is being held on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and possession of weapons, all in the context of terrorist activity, Molins said, adding that the suspect had made no comment on the accusations.
    Soulifa Badaoui, who has worked as a lawyer for Nemmouche in the past, did not want to comment to reporters waiting outside her office in Roubaix.
    "(Nemmouche's) family just does not want to be stigmatised, quite simply, there you go.
    Belgian federal magistrate Erik Van der Sypt told Reuters that Belgium would seek Nemmouche's extradition from France.
    Security around all Jewish institutions in Belgium was raised to the highest level after the shooting, and French authorities also stepped up security after two Jews were attacked the same day as they left a synagogue in a Paris suburb wearing traditional Jewish clothing.
    About half of Belgium's 42,000-strong Jewish population live in Brussels. France's Jewish community is the largest in Europe at some 550,000, though violence such as the 2012 school murders and economic woes have prompted an increase in emigration to Israel or elsewhere.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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