French Jihadists Named After Islamic State Killings

The videotaped execution of 18 Syrian soldiers and the U.S. aid worker Peter Kassig by the Islamic State organization garnered fresh international notoriety for the militant group when it was posted online on November 16. In addition to underlining the group's brutal tactics, the French government's rapid naming of two of the executioners as suspected French nationals also highlighted the large number of French Muslims who have joined the Islamic State organization and a range of other hardline Islamist militant organisations in Syria during the last few years. The extent of this trend was further confirmed in the wake of these events when the French prime minister said that "close to 50" French citizens were so far thought to have died in Syria," far more than from any other European country (BBC, November 19). This echoes earlier statements by French officials; in September, the country's interior minister said that an estimated "930 French citizens or foreigners [residing] in France are today involved in jihad in Iraq and Syria" (France24, September 15).

In the days following the release of the footage of the execution, a French prosecutor put the two men under investigation for murder, joining a terrorist organisation and conspiring to commit crimes. The first to be officially named, Maxime Hauchard, was identified as a 22-year-old from a small rural village in Normandy who had converted to Islam at the age of 17 after living an apparently unremarkable suburban life. French officials said that he had travelled to Syria in August 2013, having previously gone to Mauritania in 2012 (RFI, November 17). Hauchard, who now operates under the name "Abu Abdallah al-Faransi," had previously given a Skype interview in July describing his life in Syria, which he described the training camp "as like a holiday" before saying that he wished to die "as a martyr" (Le Monde, November 18). The second man to be identified by prosecutors, Michaël Dos Santos, a Portuguese national who gained French citizenship in 2009, was already well-known to the French security services (Le Figaro, November 19). Dos Santos, under his nom de guerre Abu Uthman, had already appeared in several online videos threatening attacks on France and had also maintained an active twitter account where he posted Salafist material and graphic photographs from Syria. Following these developments, and further underlining the involvement of a significant number of French nationals in ISIS, a further video was released by the Islamic State's al-Hayat Media Center onto YouTube on November 19, showing three French Muslims in Syria burning their French passports; the video has since been removed from YouTube (Le Figaro, November 19).

The French government has sought to take tough action against the developing jihadist threat. Although the number of French citizens in Syria remains disputed, with maximum numbers being estimated at around 1,000, the government has initiated a crackdown against jihadists seeking to return to France. In the week prior to the above events, on November 13, Flavien Moreau, the first French citizen to stand trial in France for involvement in the Syrian jihad, was convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison. Unlike committed extremists like Dos Santos, Moreau's trial revealed him to be a somewhat eccentric jihadist. Of South Korean origin, but adopted and brought up in France, he had first travelled to Syria in November 2012, but left after two weeks after being unable to deal with giving up cigarettes, as his jihadist comrades in arms had demanded. Back in France, he then tried to return to Syria, but was prevented as various European countries denied him entry; he was arrested soon afterwards in France (France24, November 13). In addition to putting such returning jihadists on trial, the French government has also taken a number of other measures, for instance, preventing around 70 people from leaving France due to suspicions that they intended to go to Syria. The government has not, however, so far outlined a broader strategy for dealing with the longer-term challenges posed by the large number of experienced jihadists who may someday return to France; given the number of French jihadists now active in Syria, such a strategy is likely to become increasingly necessary in the coming months. Indeed, prison sentences alone are unlikely to the solution and may in fact make matters worse; an estimated 60 percent of the French prison population is Muslim and prison radicalisation is already a significant concern for the French authorities (Le Figaro, October 23; Reuters, May 17, 2013).

Note

1. His twitter account, @abou_uthman_6, has since been suspended.

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