Police arrest suspected accomplice of Brussels Jewish Museum killer
Frenchman reportedly met Mehdi Nemmouche, who spent time with Islamic State in Syria, while both were in jail
PARIS — A Frenchman was detained Friday as investigators probed his ties to Mehdi Nemmouche, the jihadist charged with killing four people at Brussels’ Jewish Museum in May.
The 27-year-old man, from the southern French city of Marseille, was arrested Tuesday and is suspected of being an accomplice of Nemmouche, according to a law enforcement source. He is named in a European arrest warrant.
The man was arrested along with four other people who have since been released, during a police raid. Weapons were found in the course of the arrests.
The suspect, who has a criminal record, met Nemmouche while both were behind bars previously, the law enforcement source said.
A Paris appeals court is to rule soon on whether the suspect should be turned over to Belgian authorities, a move he has opposed.
Nemmouche, 29, a Frenchman of Algerian origin who spent more than a year fighting with the Islamic State extremists in Syria, was arrested in the southern city of Marseille shortly after an Israeli couple, a French woman and a Belgian were shot dead at the museum in central Brussels seven months ago.