The French leader of the 2014 attack at the Jewish Museum in Brussels has been transferred to France in relation to the hostage taking of French journalists in Syria.

A French judicial official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to speak publicly on the investigation, said Friday that Mehdi Nemmouche has been transferred to a French prison to face charges of "abduction and illegal sequestration with links to a terrorist enterprise."

The charges relate to allegations that he was involved in the kidnapping of four French journalists held in Syria between June 2013 and May 2014.

Nemmouche was sentenced last December to life in prison in Belgium on terror charges for shooting dead an Israeli couple and two people working at the museum.