Claimed by France, Imam Iquioussen remains in prison in Belgium
People mobilized during a rally in Paris against the expulsion of Hassan Iquioussen to Morocco in September 2022. AP - Francois Mori
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1 min
Belgian justice decided this Friday, October 21 not to hand over Imam Hassan Iquioussen to France.
He was the subject of a European arrest warrant issued in September, after the gendarmes who came to his home to carry out the order to leave French territory failed.
He had taken refuge in Belgium where he was arrested, but the request of French justice will not be executed.
At least not for now.
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With our correspondent in Brussels,
Pierre Benazet
The decision was taken by the chamber of the council of Tournai, in Belgian Hainaut, and we only know the result and not the motivations for the moment.
The chamber considered that the European arrest warrant issued against Imam Hassan Iquioussen was not executable, but it is only on Monday that the registry will communicate the substance of the arguments used to justify this decision. .
His French lawyer, Me Lucie Simon, had underlined the paradox of the situation, since Hassan Iquioussen had ultimately complied with the order to leave the territory by leaving French Hainaut for Belgian Hainaut.
In his plea, the Belgian lawyer Nicolas Cohen estimated this Friday that the European arrest warrant issued by the French courts was flawed, because it was based on "
the evasion of a removal measure
".
But this is not an offense under Belgian law, he says.
This could be the argument that tipped the council chamber;
we remember that Belgian justice had rejected the European arrest warrant of the Spanish judges against the Catalan separatist Carles Puigdemont because the accusation of the crime of lèse-majesté no longer exists in Belgium.
In the meantime, Hassan Iquioussen remains in prison, at least until Monday, because the prosecutor can still appeal.
►Read again: Imam Iquioussen arrested in Belgium
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