The highest administrative court will rule "
at the beginning of next week
" on the request of Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, who intends to have an order from the Paris administrative court suspended, suspending his request for the expulsion of preacher Hassan Iquioussen.
For nearly three hours on Friday, the interim chamber of the Council of State heard the arguments of the representative of the Ministry of the Interior and the lawyer of the preacher threatened with expulsion to Morocco.
“Hate speech”
Hassan Iquioussen is "
a charismatic preacher who has acquired legitimacy within a very large audience and who for years has been spreading insidious ideas which are no less provocations to hatred, discrimination, violence
“said the director of public freedoms and legal affairs at the Ministry of the Interior.
In the audience hall, archifull, many relatives of the imam including several representatives of the Muslim Brotherhood had taken place.
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For Lucie Simon, the imam's lawyer, the anti-Semitic or violently misogynistic remarks alleged against her client "
were sometimes made more than 20 years ago
".
“
These provocations must be current, this is what results from case law.
He has never been prosecuted or convicted for these remarks
, ”insisted the lawyer.
In a ministerial decree that AFP was able to consult, the Ministry of the Interior justified the request for the expulsion of the imam by the fact that he had been broadcasting “
to a wide audience since the beginning of the 2000s (. ..) a proselytizing discourse interspersed with remarks inciting hatred and discrimination and carrying a vision of Islam contrary to the values of the Republic
”.
"Double speech"
The ministry reproached the imam in particular for "
a particularly virulent anti-Semitic speech
" and for advocating the "
submission
" of women "
for the benefit of men
".
The expulsion order also referred to the encouragement "
to separatism
" and the "
contempt for certain republican values such as secularism and the democratic functioning of French society
".
“
We are told that Hassan Iquioussen apologized for his disputed remarks as if that crossed out the remarks.
It's a bit easy
, "said the representative of the Ministry of the Interior, denouncing "
the double talk
" of the 58-year-old imam.
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The imam's request for expulsion was suspended by the administrative court in early August.
In his order, he considered that the expulsion to Morocco of Hassan Iquioussen would cause a “
disproportionate attack
” on the “
private and family life
” of the imam.
The court had at the same time admitted that the imam had made "
retrograde remarks
" on the place of women in French society.
