Netanyahu thanks Hollande for capture of suspected Brussels museum gunman

PM hails French president for his "strong and consistent stand against anti-Semitism."

By JPOST.COM STAFF, REUTERS, JTA
PM Netanyahu and French President Hollande 370 (photo credit: REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer)
PM Netanyahu and French President Hollande 370
(photo credit: REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer)
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu spoke on Tuesday with French President Francois Hollande, expressing Israel's appreciation for the efforts made by France to arrest the suspected perpetrator of a fatal shooting at the Jewish Museum in Brussels.
Netanyahu thanked Hollande for his "strong and consistent stand against anti-Semitism."
On Sunday, police announced that they had arrested Mehdi Nemmouche, a 29-year-old French citizen, for the May 24 shooting at Brussels’s Jewish Museum that resulted in four deaths, including two Israelis.
On Tuesday, a Paris court agreed to a French prosecutor’s request to extend Nemmouche’s detention by 24 hours, a rare measure in France that can be applied only in cases where there is an “imminent” risk of attack, France 24 reported.
Nemmouche, who served time in prison in 2009 and 2012, was detained on Friday in Marseille. According to a police source he had in his possession a Kalashnikov assault rifle, another weapon and video recordings of the crime.
The French radio network RTL reported that investigators had found a memory stick with footage showing Nemmouche carrying a weapon. Local media said he also had press clippings of the shooting.
According to these reports, the arrest resulted from a random drug-related check at Marseille’s bus terminal.
Hollande confirmed that a suspect had been arrested and repeated his country’s determination to do all it could to stop radicalized youths from carrying out attacks.