A freed French hostage has said the suspected gunman behind the deadly shooting at the Jewish Museum in Brussels in May was among his Islamic extremist captors in Syria, reports RFI.
Writing on the website of his former employer, Le Point magazine, journalist Nicolas Henin said Mehdi Nemmouche, who has been extradited to Belgium and held for questioning, was his jailer between July and December 2013.
One of a group of four journalist hostages freed in April, Henin said the 29-year-old, who spent more than a year fighting in Syria, was a feared and violent figure.
"When Nemmouche was not singing, he was torturing," wrote Henin. "He was part of a small group of Frenchmen whose visits would terrify the 50-odd Syrian prisoners held in the cells nearby."
"Every night the blows would start raining down in the room, where I was also interrogated. The torture lasted all night, until dawn prayers."
Interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve confirmed that French intelligence services had "transferred elements to the judiciary that suggest (Nemmouche) may have been the jailer of our hostages," following a report in Le Monde newspaper.
Read more of this report from RFI.