French-Algerian Mehdi Nemmouche, the man suspected of killing four people at the Jewish Museum in Brussels in May, has been charged with "murder in a terrorist context," a Belgian federal court said Wednesday.
Nemmouche, 29, who was arrested in the Marseille, southern France, during a routine check a few days after the Brussels attack, was extradited to Belgium on Tuesday under a European arrest warrant. French police had found in his luggage a handgun and a Kalashnikov similar to the one used in the Brussels attack.
He has been questioned by Belgian counterterrorism specialists and an investigating judge. He originally appealed the extradition order because Belgium has not given assurances that it would not extradite him to a third country, namely Israel. A couple of Israeli tourists, as well as a French woman and a Belgian museum employee were among the people killed at the museum.
Nemmouche, who had been detained several years in a French jail for armed robbery. spent in 2012 one year in Syria to fight with the most violent jihadist groups.