Hassan Iuioussen preached against the values of the Republic, today he flouts its laws.
On Tuesday, the Council of State validated his expulsion and the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, announced that he would be placed in detention and expelled.
But, for the time being, this Islamist preacher, on file S since October 4, 2021 by territorial intelligence, is on the run.
Having abandoned his phone to avoid any geolocation, he is registered in the file of wanted persons.
From a source close to the case, he could be in Belgium (the border is 30 km from his home in the North) and is the subject of a European arrest warrant.
In reality, Hassan Iquioussen did not wait for Tuesday to cover his tracks.
He is thus absent on July 29 when we want to inform him of his expulsion to Morocco.
That day, the decree is notified to his wife and one of his sons.
Under the code for the entry and stay of foreigners and the right of asylum (Ceseda), on August 2, a home visit authorized by the judge of freedoms and detention confirms his absence, which is the subject of a report to the judicial authority.
Article L. 824-9 of the Ceseda punishes with a three-year prison sentence
"the fact, for a foreigner, of evading or attempting to evade the execution of an expulsion decision"
.
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On August 4, Hassan Iquioussen is still absent before the Paris administrative court.
In his written argument, he explains that he decided
“to go to a close friend to take a step back from the situation”
.
The man is making a discreet return home after the suspension of his expulsion on August 5, which freezes everything and deprives the decree of its enforceable effect.
But Iquioussen did not come to collect the receipt for his temporary residence permit issued by the Interior.
And he is absent before the Council of State on August 26.
The prefect of the North indicated on Wednesday that two
“fairly large” sites
- where a Hassan Iquioussen who knew the area perfectly well was likely to be - were subject to surveillance within an administrative framework that was more limited, in terms of time and resources, than within a judicial framework.
Before the decision of the Council of State, it was in any case impossible to place the preacher in police custody, for lack of legal procedure, or in detention, in the absence of a decision of the administrative justice.
Tuesday, as soon as the decision fell at the beginning of the afternoon, the prefect of the North seized the judge of freedoms and detention of two requests for home visit, authorized a few hours later.
The absence noted, the prefecture seized the parquet floor of Valenciennes.
A Challenge to the Republic
There remain two observations beyond the controversy.
On the one hand, the preacher, by
"taking a step back"
, became a fugitive subject to an arrest warrant.
If arrested in France, he could be deported to Morocco.
According to AFP, the kingdom has decided to suspend the "consular pass", essential to return the imam to his country.
In Paris, it is emphasized that the pass issued on August 1, 2022
“is valid for 60 days”
.
If he were arrested in Belgium, judicial cooperation would be facilitated by the European arrest warrant.
This case is also symbolic because it targets the Muslim Brotherhood and their double discourse.
During the debate on the bill consolidating respect for the principles of the Republic, a police officer described their strategy as follows:
"to insert themselves within the institutions in order to be able to modify them from the inside"
and to ensure that they do not respond
"no longer to the principles of the Democratic Republic as we know it, but to those of a theocracy consistent with their own vision"
.
Gérald Darmanin wanted to make the expulsion from Iquioussen the symbol of the restoration of state authority.
For the time being, it is the imam who is defying the Republic.