Excerpt:
A Moroccan man admitted setting fire to a Shiite mosque in Brussels to protest the crackdown on fellow Sunnis in Syria when he went on trial Thursday for the attack that killed the imam.
But Rachid El-Boukhari, 35, denied intending to kill the preacher at the main Shiite mosque in the Belgian capital when he addressed the court here, according to news reports.
Boukhari, who describes himself as Sunni, risks a life sentence if found guilty of carrying out the attack on the Rida mosque just before evening prayers on March 12, 2012.