Mehdi Nemmouche convicted of murder in Jewish museum attack

Frenchman claimed he was trapped into involvement in the fatal shootings

Mehdi Nemmouche has been convicted killing four people in a shooting at Brussels' Jewish Museum in 2014. Reuters

French citizen Mehdi Nemmouche was convicted of "terrorist murder" by a Belgian court on Thursday for shooting dead four people in a Jewish museum in Brussels in 2014.

Nemmouche, 33, admitted to carrying a Kalashnikov, a revolver and ammunition similar to that used in the museum shooting.

But his lawyer said his client did not pull the trigger in the attack that killed an Israeli couple and two museum staff.

Nemmouche told the court he was tricked, while his lawyer said video of the shooting was faked and his client was framed by hitmen sent to kill two agents of Israel's Mossad.

Those claims outraged the victims' families and survivors.

European Jewish Congress chief Moshe Kantor on Thursday condemned as a disgrace "the use of reprehensible tactics and conspiracy theories by the defence lawyers".

The shooting attack in May 2014 was the first to underscore the threat posed by radicalised Muslims returning to their home countries in Europe after fighting with extremist factions in Syria's civil war, from which Nemmouche returned before the museum attack.

He will be sentenced at a later date.