Defence sums up case in Belgium Jewish museum slaying

Lawyers Aurelia Psalti, left, Christian Dalne, center, and Guillaume Lys attend the trial of Mehdi Nemmouche at the Justice Palace in Brussels, Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019. The defense lawyer Thursday is summing up the case for Nemmouche, who is charged with "terrorist murder" over the 2014 slaying of an Israeli couple and two employees at the Jewish museum in Brussels, about a week before the verdict is expected to be handed down. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert, Pool)

BRUSSELS — The defence lawyer for a man charged with terror offences over the killing of four people at a Jewish museum in Belgium is summing up his case, a week before the verdict is to be handed down.

Lawyer Sebastien Courtoy on Thursday set about establishing doubt in the 12 jurors’ minds over the credibility of the evidence and witness testimony against his client, Mehdi Nemmouche.

He claims that investigators desperate to secure a guilty verdict even tampered with some of the evidence.

Nemmouche, a suspected French jihadist who spent time in Syria, is charged with “terrorist murder” over the 2014 slaying of an Israeli couple and two employees at the Jewish museum in Brussels.

Courtoy says the killing was the work of Israeli or Lebanese agents, not his client.

The Associated Press