Definitively condemned for anti-Semitic remarks made in a sermon in Toulouse in 2017, imam Mohamed Tataiat was arrested and deported to Algeria this Friday. An ultra-rapid procedure that his lawyers denounce.
Imam Mohamed Tataiat was surprised to see the border police arrive this Friday mid-morning at his home in Toulouse. The police took the 61-year-old man on board to serve him with expulsion proceedings according to an order issued by the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin.
Alerted his Toulouse lawyer Me Jean Iglesis was unable to meet him. For a long time he did not even have in hand the expulsion order, which was finally sent to the defense lawyers in the middle of the afternoon. “I suppose then that Mr. Tataiat was already on the plane. I assume so since I have no news. And neither has his family.”
Scandal six months after the inauguration of the mosque
According to our information, a Border Police plane was to come and pick up the imam in Toulouse in the afternoon. Mohamed Tataiat should be expelled no later than Saturday April 20. This express expulsion, managed directly by the Ministry of the Interior, constitutes a surprise for this father who arrived in Toulouse in 1987 and who has since been preaching and managing the Al Nour mosque, in the Empalot district in Toulouse.
A place of worship that he had largely contributed to building and which was inaugurated with great fanfare, in the presence of the prefect and representatives of the different religions at the end of June 2018 after more than thirteen years of work.
Six months later, the scandal broke. Indeed, in December, an Israeli monitoring association revealed what would become the “Tataiat affair”, or Tataï his identity as an imam paid by Algeria. In a sermon in Arabic delivered in 2017, recorded and broadcast on a You Tube channel, the imam made remarks described as anti-Semitic. The prefect refers the matter to the prosecutor, who opens an investigation. The imam defends himself, speaks of a misinterpretation of his words, of translation difficulties. “I have never been anti-Semitic,” assures the man of faith.
Sent back to the criminal court, he was initially acquitted. But on appeal, the content of his preaching was denounced at the hearing by the imam of Drancy Hassan Chalghoumi. Facing the judges, this figure of Islam denounces: “These words can lead to killings like that of Mohammed Merah!”
“Unworthy methods”, according to the defense
Since his conviction by the Toulouse Court of Appeal at the end of August 2022 to 4 months in prison, with no ban on practicing or obligation to leave the territory, imam Mohamed Tataiat has been discreet. He continued to preach at the Al Nour mosque, in the Empalot district of Toulouse and had avoided comments when the Court of Cassation rejected his appeal in December 2023.
“On March 15, we went before the departmental expulsion committee, made up of magistrates. After a debate, they decided against the expulsion,” explains his Toulouse defender. “This express expulsion, by depriving the defense and Mr Tataiat of his fundamental rights, constitutes a scandal. These are not methods worthy of the French Republic!”
The lawyers must plead a summary liberty order on Monday before the president of the Paris administrative court. It is likely that at that time, Mohamed Tataiat will find himself in Algeria, “in a country where he no longer has anyone. His family, his four children, live here, in Toulouse”, denounces Me Iglesis. While waiting for “official” news from his client, the lawyer said this Friday evening “he wants to do everything to denounce these methods which defy judicial authority and all rules of law!”