After two trips to Mauritania, Mr Hauchard arrived in Syria via Turkey in 2013, according to his now-closed Facebook page (retrieved by the Middle East Media Research Institute). By then, he had adopted the name Abdallah Al-Faransi; the surname means “the Frenchman”. French security specialists who have studied the IS video suggest that there is a “very strong probability” that Mr Hauchard is one of the executioners. Mr Cazeneuve said that it was possible that there was also another French citizen in the video.
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