Police question juror in museum shooting trial
THE TRIAL of a man accused of killing four people at the Brussels Jewish Museum was halted briefly last week as police were summoned to question a juror.
The juror told the court he was approached by a work colleague who claimed to be a witness to the attack, and shared with him an elaborate conspiracy theory involving a senior Belgian minister.
Judge Laurence Massart declared that the trial’s closing arguments, which were due to start on Monday, could not begin “under these conditions”, the Times of Israel reported
The judge told the court: “The sixth juror contacted police officials on Friday afternoon to say he met with parties not heard in this trial with whom he discussed the case file.”
Mehdi Nemmouche, a 33-year-old Frenchman, is accused of shooting dead an Israeli couple, a local worker and a French volunteer at the museum in May 2014.
He is being tried along with fellow Frenchman Nacer Bendrer, who is accused of supplying the weapons for the attack, and faces life in prison if convicted of “terrorist murder”.
Mr Nemmouche’s lawyer, Sebastien Courtoy, referred to the juror’s colleague as “probably a person in search of attention”.
Investigators said the suspect attacked the museum shortly after returning from Syria, where he had allegedly fought on behalf of jihadist groups.
Six days after the attack, he was arrested in the southern French port city of Marseille. Lawyer Sebastien Courtoy talking to main suspect Mehdi Nemmouche