Moroccan imam Hassan Iquioussen was deported Friday to Morocco by Belgium, where he was arrested on September 30 after his expulsion from France for “comments inciting hatred and discrimination”, his French lawyer announced to the AFP.
This preacher from the north of France, whose expulsion the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin had announced at the end of July, was expelled to Casablanca after the issue Thursday of a pass by the Moroccan authorities, said Me Lucie Simon .
The Belgian Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration, Nicole de Moor, welcomed “the good cooperation” with France on this file, confirming the return of the person concerned to Morocco. “We cannot allow an extremist to roam our territory. Anyone who does not have the right to be here must be sent back, ”commented Nicole de Moor, quoted in a press release.
“Gérald Darmanin was very involved with his counterparts on this subject. It is a great victory against separatism,” commented the entourage of the French Minister of the Interior.
“Turnaround”
At the end of July, Gérald Darmanin announced the expulsion of 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 (east) 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 .
His French lawyer Lucie Simon was surprised 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 of origin. .
“I am surprised by the about-face of the Moroccan authorities and I believe that Mr. 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.