29-year-old Frenchman Mehdi Nemmouche, suspected of shooting dead four people at the Brussels Jewish Museum on May 24, will fight extradition from France to Belgium and denies being the author of the attack, his lawyer said.
Nemmouche's lawyer, Apolin Pepiezep, had initially indicated that it was unlikely his client would oppose extradition but after his client appeared in a Paris court on Wednesday he told journalists : "We want him to be judged in France, first of all because he is French and he is in France.’’
Nemmouche was arrested in Marseille last Friday during a routine police check as he arrived on a coach from Amsterdam. Police found in his luggage a Kalashnikov and a pistol.
According to the lawyer, Nemmouche says he stole the arms in Belgium.“It seems that the weapons in his possession are stolen,” said the lawyer. “He was planning to sell them in Marseilles. We think the French justice system can handle this case and has the power to convict Nemmouche for illegal possession of firearms.”
Belgian press reported that the AK-47 Kalashnikov rifle, ammunition and revolver found on him will be subjected to ballistic tests to establish whether they were used in the murders in Belgium.
Also in his luggage was a GoPro portable camera, which is also being checked for content. According to the Belgian federal prosecutor, a video was found too, showing him claiming responsibility for the attack “on the Jews.”
There was also a large bundle of press clippings covering the Brussels attack.
If indeed Nemmouche was the shooter, it is hard to explain why he spent the next five days in Brussels although he knew that every policeman was looking for him.
Nemmouche has been questioned by anti-terror police at the counter-terrorism center at Levallois-Perret near Paris but he reportedly refused to answer questions.
The case will return to the Paris court on Thursday.
Belgium has issued a European arrest warrant to obtain Nemmouche’s extradition.
A couple of Israeli tourists, a French volunteer and a Belgian employee have been killed in the terror attack.
Of Algerian origin, Nemmouche had returned from Syria in March after spending one year with jihadists of the Islamist State o Iraq and Levant whose commander, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, frequently threatens to carry his jihad into the US and Europe.
An Israeli military intelligence website reported that Nemmouche had a past record of theft and jail time. According to his record, he never stayed in one place for long and was constantly on the move. Before his year in Syria, he was known to have traveled to Turkey, Lebanon, Belgium and Britain among other places. From Marseilles, he planned to leave for Algeria.
‘’His constant travels point to a further line of inquiry, hat he served as bagman for Islamist terrorist organizations and was paid to ferry smuggled weapons, ammo, funds and drugs among various cells,’’ writes Debka file.
‘’In Syria, too, it is suspected that his main employment was to smuggle arms in from Turkey and Lebanon for the Islamist militias fighting Bashar Assad.’’
‘’If that was his role, then the suspect may not have been the lead perpetrator in the Brussels museum attack but an accessory hired to pick up the weapons and other incriminating evidence from the killer as he fled the scene,’’ the website says.
France reportedly had been warned by Germany as early as March that Nemmouche might be a security threat.