Extradition resisted in Jewish museum killings

VERSAILLES, France -- A French suspect in the killing of three people at the Brussels Jewish Museum replied with a soft but firm "no" in a high-security courtroom Thursday when asked if he agreed to be extradited to Belgium.

Police special forces, masked and armed, guarded Mehdi Nemmouche in a Versailles courtroom during his first public appearance since his arrest.

The 29-year-old Nemnouche, whose lawyer said he fought with Islamic extremists in Syria, was arrested at a Marseille bus station last week as he arrived in France, carrying a pistol and Kalashnikov that resembled the weapons used in the May 24 killings.

Nemmouche, who has dual French-Algerian citizenship, was notified of the arrest warrant Wednesday. His lawyer, Apolin Pepiezep, said he will contest extradition on the grounds that his client is French, was arrested in France and a French citizen was among those killed.

The hearing over the European arrest warrant issued by Brussels was adjourned until next Thursday at the request of Pepiezep, who wants more time to study his client's file and contest the extradition request.

Three people were killed and a fourth seriously injured in the daylight attack in Brussels.

In addition to the weapons Nemmouche carried upon his arrest, officers also found among his belongings a sheet scrawled with the name of the jihadi group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and a video displaying the weapons used in the killings.

French judicial officials said he adopted radical Islamic beliefs in the seven years he spent in French prisons on various convictions.

A Section on 06/06/2014

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