Mr. Delbar is due to appear on February 1 alongside three leaders of the Roubaisian school support association "Ambitions and initiatives for success" (AAIR), we learned from the Lille prosecutor's office.

The latter, including the president and the treasurer, will be tried for "breach of trust," said the prosecution.

They had been placed in police custody for two days in November, a source familiar with the matter said at the time.

The lawyer Amine Elbahi, originally from Roubaix, alerted the North Prefecture in October 2020 on this association, accusing it of providing "Koranic lessons".

He also wrote a letter to the mayor, emphasizing that "several clues allow us to understand that this association does not respect republican values ​​and the principle of secularism".

"Under the pretext of teaching the Arabic language", the association "teaches intensive learning of the Koran for very young children", he said in his letter asking for the end of "all funding".

According to La Voix du Nord, AAIR would have received 80,000 euros in public aid in 2020, mainly from the city of Roubaix.

The prefecture of the North, which had launched an administrative investigation in 2020 on this case, did not wish to communicate.

"Does a mayor have the right to judge an association before a court?"

asked Mr. Delbar in a reaction to AFP.

"To this question I answer no, but that did not prevent the city of Roubaix and myself from making arrangements while awaiting the judgment", he added, specifying that the city had proceeded "in 2021" , "the freezing of subsidies and the withdrawal of premises" made available to the AIR.

This decision came about when, at the end of the prefecture's investigation, "it was communicated in 2021 that this association would not have respected the charter of secularism and therefore should not have benefited from our support" he detailed.

"To act against an association and deprive it of its rights, the city needs a reasoned court decision" in order "to avoid an appeal to the administrative court", he insisted, recalling that the AIR had was also supported by "the Prefecture and the Department from 2016 to 2021".

He also noted that during the hearing on February 1, the city brought a civil action as a victim "of the association.

Guillaume Delbar was sentenced on December 2 to six months suspended prison sentence and two years of ineligibility for his participation in a fraudulent system of tax exemption via micro-parties.

He appealed against this decision.

© 2022 AFP