At the end of last July, the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin announced his expulsion from French territory. But the imam was nowhere to be found when the deportation order had been finalized and had fled to Belgium.
Moroccan imam Hassan Iquioussen was expelled this Friday to Morocco by Belgium, where he was arrested on September 30 after his expulsion from France for “comments inciting hatred and discrimination”, announced his French lawyer. .
This preacher from the north of France, whose expulsion was announced by Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin at the end of July, was expelled to Casablanca after the Moroccan authorities issued a pass on Thursday, said Me Lucie Simon .
The expulsion order is worth a return ban, specifies the Ministry of the Interior to BFMTV. Hassan Iquioussen is registered in the file of wanted persons and therefore in the Schengen information system, which makes it possible to report and prevent his entry into the European area.
A “great victory against separatism”
The announcement was also made by the Belgian Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration on his Twitter account this Friday, welcome the dismissal of the “preacher of hatred Iquioussen” and “the good cooperation” with France on this file.
“We cannot allow an extremist to roam our territory. Anyone who does not have the right to be here must be removed,” she said in a statement.
For his part, Gérald Darmanin welcomes a “great victory against separatism”, learned BFMTV from those around him.
Expulsion from France at the end of July
At the end of July, Gérald Darmanin announced the expulsion of Hassan Iquioussen, accusing him of “a proselytizing speech interspersed with remarks inciting hatred and discrimination and carrying a vision of Islam contrary to the values of the Republic”.
But the imam could not be found when the expulsion order had been definitively validated by the Council of State on August 31. He had fled to French-speaking Belgium where he was arrested in the Mons region on September 30.
Hassan Iquioussen was then placed in a closed center near Liège in mid-November for illegal stay, subject to an order to leave Belgian territory after the failure of the European arrest warrant procedure launched by France.
“Turnaround”
His French lawyer Lucie Simon was surprised this Friday evening by the “about-face” of Morocco, which had refused France last summer the consular pass allowing the removal of the imam in his country from origin.
“I am surprised by the about-face of the Moroccan authorities and I believe that Hassan Iquioussen’s life is in France”, reacted Me Lucie Simon, stressing that the lawyers were not informed of the issuance of the consular document. .
“We are awaiting the judgment on the merits of the Administrative Court of Paris, if the (French) expulsion order was annulled, France will have to ensure his return”, she added.
