An armoured police vehicle and barbed wire fence block the way outside the Justice Palace during the trial of Mehdi Nemmouche in Brussels, Thursday, March 7, 2019. Nemmouche is charged with four counts of "terrorist murder" over the killing of an Israeli couple and two staffers at the Brussels Jewish Museum. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

The Latest: Guilty verdict in Belgian Jewish museum killings

By The Associated Press March 7, 2019 at 11:46am

BRUSSELS (AP) — The Latest on the murder trial from slayings of four people at Brussels Jewish museum (all times local):

7:35 p.m.

A Belgian court says a Frenchman suspected of working for the Islamic State group in Syria has been found guilty of gunning down four people at a Jewish museum in 2014, making him the first European foreign fighter to be convicted of terror offenses.

The presiding judge at the Brussels criminal court, Laurence Massart, read the verdict issued Thursday night that said “Mehdi Nemmouche is guilty of committing four terrorist murders.”

An Israeli couple and two staffers at the museum in Brussels were killed on May 24, 2014.

The 33-year-old Frenchman sat impassively while the verdict was read.

Nemmouche could face up to 30 years in prison. The court is expected to impose the sentence Friday.

An alleged accomplice, Nacer Bendrer, was found guilty of supplying the revolver and assault rifle used in the slayings.

___

10:55 a.m.

Jurors in the trial of a suspected jihadi charged with terrorism offenses over the 2014 killing of four people at Belgium’s Jewish museum are still considering their verdict.

The 12-member jury had been due to rule Thursday morning on whether Mehdi Nemmouche is guilty of four counts of “terrorist murder.” But court officials say a verdict is unlikely before early Thursday evening.

The 33-year-old Frenchman’s alleged accomplice, Nacer Bendrer, stands accused of supplying the revolver and assault rifle used to kill an Israeli couple and two museum employees.

Prosecutors claim Nemmouche fought with the Islamic State group in Syria. The museum shooting crystalized fears that European extremists would use combat experience from places like Syria to sow terror back home.

Nemmouche could face up to 30 years in prison.

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