A witness names Nemmouche as a Jewish weapons man of the museum

Brussels: A young French woman on Monday appointed Mehdi Nemmouche as the armed man at the Jewish Museum in Brussels on May 24, 2014, the first witness at her trial to do so.

Nemmouche, a 33-year-old French man faces life imprisonment for being convicted of four murders in a museum. Nacer Bendrer, 30, accused of providing arms, also has a life sentence.

"Does any of the two accused remind you of the man you saw?" the trial president questioned the witness in the Brussels Criminal Court.

"That one," said the woman, shaking her head and pointing to Nemmouche.

"You said that you recognized one of the accused." Let's be clear: is there any interaction between the two policemen in Balaclavas (Nemmouche) or the other? " the judge asked.

"Between the two men in hood," stammered the woman.

The young woman said she took a look at the gunman on the day of the shooting after approaching the museum after hearing the first shots.

She added that the armed man she described as "very calm" and wearing a cap and sunglbades then looked away and resumed shooting.

The witness stated that the sunglbades found at Nemmouche's could be those worn by the shooter.

She also stated that the man she had seen had "brown hair", was perfectly shaved and that he had "a small round head and a square jaw".

But Nemmouche 's lawyer, Sebastien Courtoy, said the witness had stated in her initial statements that she had seen a man of about "40 years old who had a little belly".

"At the time, she also stated that he was white, that he had a European style.Today, she says that he has brown skin," he said. he added.

"That's what we feared," said the lawyer, adding that "by dint of seeing someone's face for years", she ends up saying it had to be him.

Nemmouche's photo was widely circulated after his arrest while he was getting off a bus from Brussels in the French port of Marseille a week after the attack.

Courtoy said that the initial five witnesses of the trial that had opened on Jan. 10, including the young woman's mate, had not been able to identify Nemmouche as the shooter.

The trial must be completed in late February or early March.