(European Conservative) One of the high dignitaries of the Islamic State, a French national, has been held prisoner by the Kurds in northern Syria since 2018. Believing his life to be in danger, he has asked to be repatriated to France, which has created controversy: it was in fact through him that the French learned of Daesh’s involvement in two terrorist attacks on French soil.
The man was born Adrien Guihal on the French civil register, but for the Islamic State, he goes by the name Abu Oussama al-Faransi. Aged 40, he converted to radical Islam in 2002. In 2008, he took part in an attempted terrorist attack on the headquarters of the French intelligence service, foiled by the French authorities, earning him a prison sentence. Released in 2012, he then worked in a car garage reputed to be a haunt of jihadists.
