By: Yassmine ElSayed
CAIRO, Jan 10. (SEE) - Today, Mehdi Nemmouche, a Frenchman who is originally from Algeria, will stand trial for the killing of four people at a Jewish museum in Belgium, faces a potential sentence of life imprisonment.
A footage published by Belgium Police on May 25th 2014 for the shooting
It took only 82 seconds for Nemmouche to shoot dead the victims in Brussels on May 24, 2014 in an attack that set a disturbing precedent across the continent. He was captured by the security services in Marseilles six days after the assault, still carrying weapons.
Nemmouche is allegedly the first Western European citizen to have traveled to Syria, joined ISIS, and returned to Europe to execute a terrorist attack.
According to media reports, his trial highlights concerns from law enforcement authorities that terror suspects often spread radicalization and hatch more.
Terror suspects who spend time in prison often hatch more schemes of attack behind bars and use their time to radicalize fellow inmates.
Nemmouche, for example, maintained contact with members of the Belgium-France terrorist cell to which he was linked even after his arrest. Prison records show that he communicated with Salah Abdeslam, the sole surviving suspect in the Paris attacks, while detained in a maximum security Belgian prison, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Several terrorists and suspected terrorists, including Nemmouche, were reportedly radicalized in prison. A Frenchman who emigrated from Mali took hostages and killed four people in a Jewish grocery store in 2015 with the help of two terrorists who killed 12 people at Charlie Hebdo days earlier. He did so after becoming radicalized in prison.
Nemmouche is the first citizen of Western Europe to be tried for traveling to Syria, joining ISIS and returning to allegedly execute a deadly terrorist attack. His case also highlights the security concerns of returnees from Syria and Iraq to Europe. Approximately 5,000 people have left Europe for Syria and Iraq since 2012. About 1,500 of those people have returned to Europe, at which point law enforcement authorities have sought to arrest them, sentence those who joined terrorist organizations, and release others on parole.
Several challenges face European countries in this regard, they do have little choice but to imprison those convicted of traveling to Syria or Iraq to join ISIS, since the death penalty is outlawed in the EU.
Another complicating factor is the acceptable grounds for prosecution — simply holding radical views is not illegal, so law enforcement must wait to catch suspects until they have either downloaded materials for bomb-making or constructing guns or attempted to join a terrorist organization.
Follow the latest news on Google News
