Muslim School Triumphs in Legal Battle Against French Authorities

Relief for the management of the private Muslim college Avicenne in Nice. The Marseille Administrative Court of Appeal rejected on Friday the appeal filed by the Ministry of National Education against the decision rendered by the Nice Administrative Court in July 2024, reports SaphirNews. The latter had canceled the order of the Prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes of March 15, 2024 pronouncing the definitive closure of the private establishment. The public rapporteur had considered the decision taken against the private college "disproportionate in view of the objectives of the law, which are the prevention of risks of public order disturbances, the health and safety of students".

The court followed the footsteps of the tribunal. "To cancel the order of March 14, 2024, the court considered, like the Nice administrative court, that although the documents provided by the Avicenne association had shortcomings, the definitive closure of the establishment was nevertheless disproportionate given the small extent of these failures to comply with the obligations set out in Article L. 442-2, II of the Education Code and the prefect’s ability to order a temporary closure only," the appeal court said in its ruling of October 10.

"This third consecutive victory (counting the suspension of the order taken in April 2024, editor’s note) confirms the assessment of the first Nice judges as to the full regularity of its accounting and the injustice of the prefectural decision," said Othmane Aissaoui, president of the Union of Muslims of the Alpes-Maritimes (UMAM) and the Avicenne association, and their lawyer, Sefen Guez Guez, in a press release. Opened since 2015, the Muslim college Avicenne in Nice is linked to the UMAM.