Law & Politics
Brussels Jewish Museum to Reopen After Terrorist Attack
The Jewish Museum in Brussels is to reopen on September 14, three-and-a-half months after a radical Islamic gunman killed four people in the museum (“Brussels Jewish Museum Shooting Leaves Four Dead“), Art Magazin reported.
On Tuesday Museum director Philippe Blondin announced that the reopening will be accompanied by increased security and police protection. Visitors can expect the use of metal detectors and further searches of their person. In addition Blondin revealed that the entrance has been reinforced with bullet-proof glass.
The attack was carried out on May 24 by a man carrying an assault rifle and a handgun. The perpetrator shot and killed an Israeli couple, a French citizen and a Belgian citizen. The man was later alleged to be Mehdi Nemmouche, a 29 year old French citizen of Algerian descent who converted to Islam whilst serving a prison sentence for armed robbery (“Frenchman Confesses to Brussels Jewish Museum Shooting“). Following his radicalization in prison he traveled to Syria to fight alongside jihadists in the civil war.
Nemmouche was arrested on May 30 during a routine customs check at a bus station in Marseille, France; where customs officials discovered weapons similar to those used in the attack on the Jewish Museum in Brussels. The gunman was later extradited to Belgium where he was charged with “murder in a terrorist context,” (“Brussels Jewish Museum Gunman Charged“).
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