- Nicolas Henin tells reporters Mehdi Nemmouche beat him during captivity in Syria
- Nemmouche is accused in the shooting of four people at the Jewish Museum in Belgium
- Henin, a reporter for Le Point, alleges that Nemmouche used to beat and torture prisoners
- Henin was freed in April after 10 months in captivity, part of which he spent with James Foley
(CNN) -- A suspected jihadist accused of a deadly shooting at Belgium's Jewish Museum also guarded Western hostages while fighting with ISIS in Syria, according to a French journalist and former captive.
Nicolas Henin -- who was released in April from captivity in Syria -- told reporters Saturday that suspect Mehdi Nemmouche not only was one of his captors, but that he tortured and beat those in his charge.
Matthew Todd Miller, one of three Americans detained in North Korea, spoke to CNN's Will Ripley on Monday, September 1, and implored the U.S. government for help. The 24-year-old is accused of tearing up his tourist visa and seeking asylum upon entry. Dressed in a black turtleneck and often avoiding eye contact, Miller told CNN he has admitted his guilt -- even though he won't learn of his charges until he goes to trial. 
Freelance American journalist Steven Sotloff, seen here in a photo from Facebook, disappeared during a reporting trip to Syria in August 2013. His family kept the news a secret until August 2014, when he was seen at the end of a video from the Islamic extremist group ISIS. That video showed the beheading of journalist James Foley. On Tuesday, September 2, ISIS published another video that showed the beheading of Sotloff, delivered as a "second message to America" to halt airstrikes in Iraq. 
Freelance reporter James Foley went missing in November 2012 after his car was stopped by gunmen in Syria. A video released by ISIS on August 19 showed Foley being beheaded. The video, posted on YouTube, contained a message to the United States to end its military operations in Iraq. 
Jeffrey Edward Fowle, another one of the Americans detained in North Korea, is accused of leaving a Bible in a hotel where he was staying. North Korea announced Fowle's detention in June, saying he had violated the law by acting "contrary to the purpose of tourism." Fowle told CNN: "I've admitted my guilt to the government and signed a statement to that effect and requested forgiveness from the people and the government of the DPRK." 
In May 2013, a North Korean court sentenced Kenneth Bae, a U.S. citizen, to 15 years of hard labor for committing "hostile acts" against the state. North Korea claimed Bae was part of a Christian plot to overthrow the regime. In a short interview with CNN on Monday, September 1, Bae said he is working eight hours a day, six days a week at a labor camp. "Right now what I can say to my friends and family is, continue to pray for me," he said. 
American journalist Peter Theo Curtis was handed over to U.N. peacekeepers on August 24 after nearly two years in captivity. He is believed to have been captured in October 2012 and held by the al-Nusra Front, a Syrian rebel group with ties to al Qaeda. 
Alan Gross, at right with Rabbi Arthur Schneier, has been in Cuban custody since December 2009, when he was jailed while working as a subcontractor. Cuban authorities say Gross tried to set up illegal Internet connections on the island. Gross says he was just trying to help connect the Jewish community to the Internet. Former President Jimmy Carter and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson have both traveled to Cuba on Gross' behalf, but they were unable to secure his release. 
This undated image provided by the U.S. Army shows Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who had been held by insurgents in Afghanistan since 2009. The White House announced Bergdahl's release on May 31. Bergdahl was released in exchange for five senior Taliban members held by the U.S. military. 
An Iranian court threw out a 2011 death sentence for Amir Hekmati, a former U.S. Marine charged with spying. But he was secretly retried in Iran and convicted of "practical collaboration with the U.S. government," his sister told CNN on April 11. He has been sentenced to 10 years in prison, she said. Hekmati was detained in August 2011 during a visit to see his grandmother. His family and the Obama administration deny accusations he was spying for the CIA. 
Retired FBI agent Robert Levinson has been missing since 2007. His family says he was working as a private investigator in Iran when he disappeared, and multiple reports suggest Levinson may have been working for the CIA. His family told CNN in January that they have long known that Levinson worked for the CIA, and they said it's time for the government to lay out the facts about Levinson's case. U.S. officials have consistently denied publicly that Levinson was working for the government, but they have repeatedly insisted that finding him and bringing him home is a "top" priority. 
Warren Weinstein, a contractor held by al Qaeda militants, is a U.S. citizen who has been held hostage in Pakistan since August 2011. 
U.S. tourist and Korean War veteran Merrill Newman arrives at the Beijing airport on December 7, 2013, after being released by North Korea. Newman was detained in October 2013 by North Korean authorities just minutes before he was to depart the country after visiting through an organized tour. His son Jeff Newman said the Palo Alto, California, man had all the proper paperwork and set up his trip through a North Korean-approved travel agency. 
Mexican authorities arrested Yanira Maldonado, a U.S. citizen, right, in May 2013, for alleged drug possession. She and her husband, Gary, were traveling from Mexico back to the United States when their bus was stopped and searched. She was released a few days later and is now back in the United States. 
Saeed Abedini, a 33-year-old U.S. citizen of Iranian birth, was sentenced to eight years in prison in January 2013. He was accused of attempting to undermine the Iranian government and endangering national security by establishing home churches. 
North Korea has arrested Americans before, only to release them after a visit by a prominent dignitary. Journalists Laura Ling, center, and Euna Lee, to her right, spent 140 days in captivity after being charged with illegal entry to conduct a smear campaign. They were freed in 2009 after a trip by former President Bill Clinton. 
Former President Jimmy Carter negotiated the release of Aijalon Gomes, who was detained in 2010 after crossing into North Korea illegally from China. Analysts say high-level visits give Pyongyang a propaganda boost and a way to save face when it releases a prisoner. 
Eddie Yong Su Jun was released by North Korea a month after he was detained in April 2011. His alleged crime was not provided to the media. The American delegation that secured his freedom included Robert King, the U.S. special envoy for North Korean human rights issues. 
Robert Park was released by North Korea in 2010 without any apparent U.S. intervention. The Christian missionary crossed into North Korea from China, carrying a letter asking Kim Jong Il to free political prisoners and resign. North Korea's state-run news agency said Park was released after an "admission and sincere repentance of his wrongdoings." Here, Park holds a photo of Kim and a malnourished child during a protest in Seoul. 
Josh Fattal, center, Sarah Shourd, left, and Shane Bauer were detained by Iran while hiking near the Iraq-Iran border in July 2009. Iran charged them with illegal entry and espionage. Shourd was released on bail for medical reasons in September 2010; she never returned to face her charges. Bauer and Fattal were convicted in August 2011, but the next month they were released on bail and had their sentences commuted. 
Haleh Esfandiari, an Iranian-American scholar, was detained at Iran's Evin Prison, spending months in solitary confinement before Iran released her on bail in August 2007. Esfandiari was visiting her ailing mother in Tehran when she was arrested and charged with harming Iran's national security. 
Sixteen Americans were among the dozens arrested in December 2011 when Egypt raided the offices of 10 nongovernmental organizations that it said received illegal foreign financing and were operating without a public license. Many of the employees posted bail and left the country after a travel ban was lifted a few months later. Robert Becker, right, chose to stay and stand trial. 
Filmmaker Timothy Tracy was arrested in Venezuela in April 2013 on allegations of funding opponents of newly elected President Nicolas Maduro, successor to the late Hugo Chavez. Tracy went to Venezuela to make a documentary about the political division gripping the country. He was released in June 2013. Americans detained abroad
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Photos: Americans detained abroad "I've been given a number of graphic and audio materials that allowed me to be certain that the fighter that I met in Syria during my captivity was indeed Mehdi Nemmouche," he said during a news conference held in Paris.
Henin told CNN he spent seven of the 10 months he was held with beheaded U.S. journalist James Foley, making it possible that Nemmouche would also have come in contact with him.
He told reporters Nemmouche physically assaulted him a number of times during his captivity.
"I don't know of any bad treatment to any other foreign hostages coming from him specifically, but I witnessed him torturing local prisoners," Henin told reporters.
Nemmouche is currently in Belgium, having been extradited from France in July. He awaits prosecution in the fatal shooting of four people at the Jewish Museum in Brussels in May.
Henin's accusation against Nemmouche first surfaced in a piece published Saturday in Le Point.
Obama calls for anti-ISIS NATO coalition 
Violence in the name of Allah? 
Anti-Semitic violence increases globally Le Point, Henin's employer, said it had not planned to go public with Henin's information because they worried that doing so could jeopardize the safety of about 20 Western hostages still held by ISIS in Syria. But a report Saturday by French newspaper Le Monde that made public Nemmouche's alleged involvement in hostage-taking forced its hand.
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve told reporters in Montpellier on Saturday that French officials believe Nemmouche "could have been the jailer of hostages, including our hostages."
CNN has not been able independently to verify the allegations.
An attorney for Nemmouche, Apolin Pepiezep, declined to comment when contacted by CNN. But he told France-based BFM-TV that he thinks the journalist is confusing his client with someone else.
Pepiezep confirmed his client was questioned by French authorities this summer, but was not asked about that period in Syria.
Portrayal of lost, perverse young man
Le Monde reports that the French internal security directorate, the DGSI, passed information to the counterterrorism section of the Paris prosecutor's office on Nemmouche's suspected role based on testimony from former hostages.
The witness accounts vary, the newspaper reports, with some saying it was "possible" Nemmouche was one of the captors, while others were more certain.
According to certain witnesses, Le Monde says, Nemmouche was only a lowly member of ISIS tasked with guarding the Western hostages -- but he showed great brutality and committed serious abuses.
The account given by Henin -- one of four French hostages released in April -- to Le Point appears to bear out that characterization.
It paints a picture of Nemmouche as an egotist and storyteller, a lost, perverse young man who sees jihad as a route to the notoriety he craves. He allegedly guarded Western hostages then held in a former hospital in Aleppo, Syria, that had been transformed into a prison. Henin says he was his captor between July and December of last year.
"When Nemmouche was not singing, he would torture," Henin is quoted as saying. He alleges Nemmouche was part of a small group of French jihadists who would terrorize about 50 Syrian prisoners held in the neighboring cells.
"Every evening, the blows would start to rain down in the room where I myself had been interrogated," he recalls. "The torture lasted all night, until the dawn prayer. The screams of the prisoners were sometimes met by yelps in French."
Henin's full account of his experiences in captivity is due to be published next week by Le Point.
Prosecutors: Suspect found with revolver, Kalashnikov
Cazeneuve, the French interior minister, said that as soon as the freed hostages gave information to the DGSI about Nemmouche, "it was immediately communicated to (officials) so that justice could follow its course."
He added, "This was done in extremely discrete manner to facilitate the efficiency of the procedures in the face of a character who is extremely violent ... and represented a danger to the safety of French people."
French prosecutors said at the time of Nemmouche's arrest that he had been found in a check on a bus entering Marseille with a checked bag containing a revolver, a Kalashnikov and a small GoPro camera like the one seen on the suspect in the museum shooting.
The 29-year-old, from Roubaix in the Pas-de-Calais region of northern France, recently spent a year in Syria and is a radicalized Islamist, the chief prosecutor of Paris said at a news conference.
François Molins said Nemmouche, who has a criminal history that included a five-year prison stint, was influenced by Islamist teachings while in prison and left for Syria three weeks after being released in September 2012.
Also found in the bag, according to Molins, was "a white cloth with words written with a marker, mentioning in Arabic the Islamic State in Iraq and Levant," as ISIS is also known.
Foley 'had to endure more'
Henin told CNN last month that he and Foley had been mistreated at times by their captors while held together.
"Foley especially had to endure more because he was American," he said. "He was missing his family and would talk often about them."
Foley's killing was followed days later by another video showing the beheading of another American journalist held by ISIS, Steven Sotloff. A threat was made at the end of the video to a British hostage in the group's hands.
Henin was freed along with French photographer Pierre Torres and two other French journalists, Didier François and Edouard Elias, on April 19.
It's not known what went on behind the scenes to secure their release, but French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius insisted that France had not paid a ransom, Radio France Internationale reported at the time.
CNN's Anna Maja Rappard, Chelsea J. Carter, Sandrine Amiel and Bharati Naik contributed to this report.
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