French police arrested a man suspected of killing four people in the May 24 shooting at the Brussels Jewish Museum. French citizen Mehdi Nemmouche, 29, was detained in Marseilles on Friday while traveling on a bus from Amsterdam via Brussels.
Authorities announced that Nemmouche had spent a year living in Syria after becoming involved with radical Islam durign a prison stint. Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said he traveled to Syria three weeks after he was freed. “He spent over a year in Syria, where he seems to have joined the ranks of combatant groups, jihadist terrorist groups,” he told a news conference.
Nemmouche was found in possession of an AK-47 Kalashnikov rifle, which police knew was used by the Brussels shooter. He also had a rifle and ammunition, as well as a baseball cap that resembled the one the shooter as wearing.
French President Francois Hollande said he was pleased with the arrest and vowed to track suspected militants. “We will monitor those jihadists and make sure that when they come back from a fight that is not theirs, and that is definitely not ours … they cannot do any harm.”
Joel Rubefield, who is head of the Belgian League against Anti-Semitism, said he was quite pleased, but the attack was still highly disconcerting. “This is a relief. But this is also worrying us. It is is crucial that countries… make sure this does not happen again.” Read more.
{Andy Heller-Matzav.com Newscenter}
