Prosecutors seek guilty verdict for 'savage' Jewish museum killings

Pulse News Agency International by AFP

February 26, 2019 4:14 PM

Prosecutors on Tuesday formally demanded a guilty verdict against a Frenchman accused of murdering four people in a "violent and savage" killing spree at the Jewish museum in Brussels.

"If attacking a museum with a combat weapon is not violent and savage then nothing will ever be violent and savage. We are looking at one of the most serious possible crimes," said prosecutor Bernard Michel, shown here in a court sketch

At the end of a two-day closing summary, prosecutor Bernard Michel urged the jury to find Mehdi Nemmouche, 33, guilty of four counts of "terrorist murder" over the May 2014 attack in which all four victims were coldly shot in the head with either a handgun or a Kalashnikov.

The jury is expected to give its verdict on March 7 before deliberating over what sentence Nemmouche should serve if found guilty.

In his summing up, Michel said Nemmouche, who allegedly fought for jihadist groups in Syria, was "not simply radicalised but ultra-radicalised".

"If attacking a museum with a combat weapon is not violent and savage then nothing will ever be violent and savage. We are looking at one of the most serious possible crimes," Michel said.

"For the killer, for Mehdi Nemmouche, the identity of the victims mattered little. The aim was simply that there should be victims. Everything was premeditated."

Prosecutors accuse Nemmouche of carrying out the first attack in Europe by a jihadist returning from fighting in Syria. The Brussels killings came 18 months before the November 13, 2015, Paris attacks which left 130 dead.

Aside from denying his guilt over the course of a seven-week trial which began on January 10, Nemmouche has said almost nothing in the dock since the first day.

Nemmouche is being tried along with fellow Frenchman Nacer Bendrer, a petty criminal from Marseilles who is accused of supplying the weapons for the attack.

Michel urged the jury to find Bendrer guilty of being Nemmouche's accomplice.

Pulse News Agency International by AFP