Suspect in Brussels Jewish museum attack refuses to testify

BRUSSELS — A French citizen charged with “terrorist murder” for the slayings of four people at a Jewish museum in Belgium refuses to testify at his trial Tuesday, saying he didn’t commit the killings but that the court had barred witnesses who could have spoken on his behalf.

Mehdi Nemmouche, 33, is accused of carrying out one of the first attacks by an alleged extremist who returned to Europe after fighting in the Mideast.

Defense lawyers have claimed Israeli intelligence agents opened fire at the museum in a targeted killing.

Nemmouche is charged with gunning down an Israeli couple and two museum workers with a revolver and an assault rifle on May 24, 2014. Police officers flank him in the Brussels criminal court where he is being tried, their faces covered by balaclavas.

“For the moment, I do not want to talk,” Nemmouche tells the presiding judge. “None of the people who could have helped me have been retained on the list of witnesses.”

Asked whether he killed the four victims, Nemmouche answers “No.” He does acknowledge transporting the guns that investigators say were used in the museum slayings.

— AP