Two Frenchmen in Isis video investigated for murder

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/17/two-frenchmen-isis-investigated-murder

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Two French jihadis are being investigated for murder after appearing in an Islamic State video that showed the beheadings of an American aid worker and 18 Syrian soldiers.

The Paris prosecutor François Molins identified one of the suspects as 22-year-old Maxime Hauchard, who converted to Islam at the age of 17. Molins said a second Frenchman, who like Hauchard converted to Islam and left France in August last year for Syria, may also have carried out beheadings.

The second French jihadi in the video was not identified, but has been sought since October last year. The pair are being investigated for murder with an organised gang and associating with terrorists.

Molins said the number of French nationals who had gone to Syria or Iraq to join Isis had reached an “unprecedented level”, with a total 1,132 people suspected of joining terrorist organisations there. Since February 2012, prosecutors have opened 93 jihadi-related cases and 129 people have been charged. Molins said a presumed acquaintance of Hauchard was charged last week with associating with terrorists.

Hauchard, who comes from a village in Normandy, has been known to French intelligence services since 2011, and an arrest warrant was issued for him last month after he gave an interview describing his training as an Isis militant.

He travelled to Syria via Turkey where he claimed to be a humanitarian worker. Once in Syria, he took on the nom de guerre Abu Abdallah el Faransi. He told BFMTV that he decided to travel to Syria for religious reasons to help create a caliphate, and was fully prepared for “martyrdom”. He said he had travelled alone and without any help.

Molins stressed that adherence to radical Islam was not a criminal offence but police were alert for possible terrorist connections. More than 5% of the French population is Muslim, including many of north African origin.

Authorities have taken pains to dismiss suggestions that the community as a whole is under suspicion after two French Muslims carried out high-profile attacks. Mehdi Nemmouche, a returnee from Syria originally from northern France, has been extradited to Belgium where he is accused of the murder of four people at a Jewish museum in Brussels last May. Mohamed Merah was shot by police in Toulouse after targeting French soldiers and Jewish civilians in gun attacks in March 2012.

Molins said the case of Hauchard, who converted to Islam after being brought up in a Catholic family, was “far from an isolated case”. One French jihadi arrested in Mali last year was a Breton.

The French prime minister, Manuel Valls, said on Monday that terrorists would have to pay for their actions through the courts.