(AFP) A French jihadist appeared in court on Monday as a jury was chosen for his trial for shooting dead four people at a Jewish museum in Brussels in 2014.
Mehdi Nemmouche, the first jihadist to return from Syria’s battlefields to allegedly launch an attack on European soil, faces a life sentence if convicted of the killings in the Belgian capital on May 24, 2014.
Both Nemmouche, 33, and Nacer Bendrer, a fellow Frenchman aged 30 who allegedly supplied the weapons, deny charges of “terrorist murder.”
Nemmouche, wearing a blue sweater, spoke only to confirm his identity as the hearing began at 10:30 am (0930 GMT).
“Nemmouche, Mehdi, 33 years old, unemployed,” he told the criminal court in Brussels before it selected a jury of eight men and four women for the trial, which opens on Thursday.
