A Belgian court found a suspected ISIS member guilty of gunning down four people at a Jewish Museum in 2014, the Associated Press reports.
Mehdi Nemouche, 33, who is a Belgian citizen of Algerian descent, was found guilty of terrorism charges and the murder of four people this Thursday.
ISIS attacked Europe. Mehdi Nemouche, French jihadi who shot 4 in Brussels Jewish Museum, was IS guard of James Foley http://t.co/9rlBxwn10s
— Daniel Schwammenthal (@DSchwammenthal) September 6, 2014
The attack happened in 2014 when Nemouche used a Kalashnikov (AK 47) Rifle, which was supplied by his friend. Four people died in the attack, including an Israeli couple on vacation and two workers at the museum, one French and one Belgian.
Nemouche’s lawyers argued that the attack was not anti-Semitic but targeted against “Mossad agents,” or agents of an Israeli intelligence group. The family of the Israeli couple’s lawyers, however, argued that it was “an absolute scandal” to try and pass them off as Mossad agents, according to the Times of Israel. (RELATED: Omar Facing More Accusations Of Anti-Semitism)
Miriam Rivera, one of the victims, worked for Mossad agents as an accountant.
Nemouche is the first European foreign fighter to be convicted of terrorism charges. He could face up to 30 years in prison pending on what the jury decides on Friday.
Nemouche is said to have been radicalized in prison and spent a year in Syria, according to BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner. Prosecutors claim that he even fought for the Islamic Stae when he was in Syria.
French journalist Didier Francois, who was captured by the Islamic State in Syria and was held captive and tortured, claimed that Nemouche was a member of the IS police where he tortured prisoners.
When he was arrested, Nemouche had “a machine gun wrapped in the flag of the Islamic State,” according to authorities cited by the BBC.