France to rule on Jewish Museum suspect extradition

A French court said Thursday it will decide on June 26 whether to extradite to Belgium the man suspected of carrying out a deadly shooting at the Jewish Museum in Brussels last month.

Franco-Algerian Mehdi Nemmouche, 29, who was detained several days after the attack that left four people dead, told the court he was not opposed to his transfer to Belgium as long as he has assurances he will not be sent on to a third country.

The shooting on May 24 — the first such attack in Brussels in three decades — raised fears across Europe of a resurgence of anti-Semitic violence and of terror attacks from foreign fighters returning from Syria.

Nemmouche had spent more than a year fighting with radical jihadists in Syria.

He was arrested on May 30 in the southern city of Marseille in a bus coming from Brussels.

A revolver and Kalashnikov rifle were found in his luggage — similar weapons to those used in the shooting — as was a portable camera.

A Jewish-Israeli couple was killed in the shooting, as were a French woman and Belgian man.