The Council of State, the highest French administrative court, will decide "at the beginning of next week" on the request of the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin, who intends to have an order of the administrative court of Paris suspending the request for expulsion canceled. of the preacher Hassan Iquioussen.

For nearly three hours this Friday, the chamber of summary proceedings of the Council of State heard the arguments of the representative of the Ministry of the Interior and the lawyer of the preacher threatened with expulsion to Morocco.

Charisma and hateful provocation

Hassan Iquioussen is "a charismatic preacher who has acquired legitimacy within a very large audience and who for years has been spreading insidious ideas which are no less provocations to hatred, discrimination, violence “said the director of public freedoms and legal affairs at the Ministry of the Interior.

In the audience hall, archifull, many relatives of the imam including several representatives of the Muslim Brotherhood had taken place.

For Lucie Simon, the imam's lawyer, the anti-Semitic or violently misogynistic remarks alleged against her client "were sometimes made more than twenty years ago".

“These provocations must be current, this is what results from case law”.

“He has never been prosecuted or convicted for these remarks,” insisted the lawyer.

On July 28, the Ministry of the Interior issued an expulsion order targeting the imam because of “a proselytizing speech peppered with remarks inciting hatred and discrimination and carrying a contrary vision of Islam. to the values ​​of the Republic".

The ministry notably criticized the imam for "a particularly virulent anti-Semitic speech" and his sermons advocating the "submission" of women "for the benefit of men".

The expulsion order also referred to the encouragement "to separatism" and the "contempt for certain republican values ​​such as secularism and the democratic functioning of French society".

Seized by Hassan Iquioussen's lawyers, the Paris administrative court suspended this request for expulsion in early August, arguing that the expulsion of the imam, born in France 58 years ago but of Moroccan nationality, would "undermine disproportionate” to his “private and family life”.

If the Council of State confirms the decision of the administrative court, Hassan Iquioussen cannot be expelled to Morocco.

If the high administrative court on the contrary overturns the decision of the administrative court, Hassan Iquioussen will be expelled even if the case will only be pleaded on the merits before the Council of State within a few months.

In an interview published by the Sunday newspaper, Gérald Darmanin, "disappointed" by the decision of the administrative court, has already warned that if the law "does not allow" to expel Hassan Iquioussen, it will have to be changed " to further defend the French.

“Yes, Hassan Iquioussen is a conservative.

He had retrograde remarks on the place of women”, conceded Lucie Simon.

“But this does not constitute a serious threat to public order,” she stressed.

For his part, Simon considered that the expulsion order essentially responds to "a political agenda of Gérald Darmanin".

“It is said that this man (Hassan Iquioussen) threatens public order through his videos posted on the internet.

Is expelling him really the solution to safeguard public order?” she wondered.

World

The Council of State examines the case of an imam threatened with expulsion

Policy

Imam Hassan Iquioussen: Administrative justice suspends his expulsion announced by Gérald Darmanin

  • Imam

  • Gerald Darmanin

  • Board of state

  • Expulsion