French Court to Rule on Controversial Imam’s Expulsion Next Week

A French national of Moroccan origin, Hassan Iquioussen has been the subject of an expulsion procedure since late July. In the midst of a political-legal battle, the Paris administrative court decided on August 5 to suspend this expulsion. The administrative justice then considered that such a procedure would constitute a "disproportionate infringement" on the "private and family life" of the imam from the North.

Seized by Beauvau, the high court heard the two parties for hours on Friday and indicated that it would soon hand down its decision. For the representative of the Ministry of the Interior, Hassan Iquioussen is "a charismatic preacher who has managed to acquire legitimacy within a very wide audience and who for years has been spreading insidious ideas that are no less incitements to hatred, discrimination, violence."

On the other hand, Lucie Simon, the imam’s lawyer, argued that the anti-Semitic or violently misogynistic remarks attributed to her client "were sometimes made more than 20 years ago": "These provocations must be current, this is what the case law results in. He has never been prosecuted or convicted for these remarks."