Brussels prosecutors seek guilty verdict for ‘savage’ Jewish museum killings

BRUSSELS, Belgium — Prosecutors formally demand a guilty verdict against a Frenchman accused of murdering four people in a “violent and savage” killing spree at the Jewish museum in Brussels.

At the end of a two-day closing summary, prosecutor Bernard Michel urged the jury to find Mehdi Nemmouche, 33, guilty of four counts of “terrorist murder” over the May 2014 attack in which all four victims were coldly shot in the head with either a handgun or a Kalashnikov.

The jury is expected to give its verdict on March 7 before deliberating over what sentence Nemmouche should serve if found guilty.

In his summing up, Michel says Nemmouche, who allegedly fought for jihadist groups in Syria, was “not simply radicalized but ultra-radicalized.”

“If attacking a museum with a combat weapon is not violent and savage then nothing will ever be violent and savage. We are looking at one of the most serious possible crimes,” Michel says.

Prosecutors accuse Nemmouche of carrying out the first attack in Europe by a jihadist returning from fighting in Syria. The Brussels killings came 18 months before the November 13, 2015, Paris attacks which left 130 dead.

— AFP