Moroccan Authorities Reject Expulsion of Terror Suspect’s Brother

The mayor of Lure (Haute-Saône) is concerned for the safety of his constituents. At the origin of this concern, the house arrest of Karim Mohamed-Aggad, a "S" listed person. "Concerns [...] have been rising for several weeks" in Lure due to the man’s profile. "There have been alerts on social media, employees in supermarkets, the CPAM who have been concerned," he added. On Monday, the mayor called on the State in the face of the "nascent psychosis" in his municipality around the presence of this 34-year-old man, reports L’Est Républicain. "I am asking to organize a rotation (between several places of residence, editor’s note) pending the validation of the expulsion by the host countries," said Eric Houlley, the socialist mayor of Lure, a town of around 8,000 inhabitants.

In November 2023, Élisabeth Borne, then Prime Minister, stripped Karim Mohamed-Aggad of his French nationality. Born to an Algerian father and a Moroccan mother, he grew up in Wissembourg in the north of the Bas-Rhin. Known to the French justice system, he was sentenced to nine years in prison in 2016 for having joined the Islamic State (IS). At the time, Karim had left with his younger brother, Foued Mohamed-Aggad, for a stay in the Iraqi-Syrian zone between December 2013 and April 2014. Placed in the administrative detention center in Metz after the deprivation of French nationality, he was placed under house arrest in Lure at the end of June 2024 by order of the Minister of the Interior pending his expulsion from the territory. The only problem: neither Algeria nor Morocco has issued the necessary consular laissez-passer for his expulsion, the same source said. "Everything has not been done at the central state level [...] to achieve a result and avoid having this nascent psychosis," says the socialist elected official.

For Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, it is time to "change the rules". "We have to change the rules of law. I am in favor of the rule of law but the state of the law, currently, is paralyzing us. That’s why I am pleading with the (European) Commission to change the return policy, the deportation policy," he said, on the sidelines of a visit to Strasbourg.

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