Spanish Court Upholds Expulsion of Moroccan Imam Over National Security Concerns

Yahya Benaouda has just been dismissed by the administrative chamber of the Audiencia Nacional, to which he had appealed the decision of the Secretary of State for Security of the Ministry of the Interior to order his expulsion from Spain in June 2020.

The expulsion order cited "the commission of a very serious offense and the fact of carrying out activities threatening national security," according to the complaint filed by the Commissioner General for Information. "After examining the statements of the accused and the evidence provided," the Court considered that they are not sufficient to "refute the facts that, according to the administration, justified the expulsion" of the Moroccan, accused of Salafism.

The judges consider Benaouda’s profile and discourse as "radical" and confirm that he constitutes a "threat to security and social stability." The National Court specifies that the Moroccan imam did not deny disseminating radical content on his two social media accounts. Benaouda currently resides in Morocco. He recently announced that if his expulsion is confirmed, he will take the case to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).