Suspected of having organized an opaque financing system used to launder illicit donations and divert money from the faithful, five leaders of the Islamic center of Villeneuve-d'Ascq (59), including its rector imam Mohamed Karrat, had been placed under judicial supervision following their police custody in May 2023, as revealed by
Le Figaro
.
The five religious leaders (Mohamed Karrat, the president of the Islamic center, as well as Abdellah Ouafi the treasurer, Mostafa Mabsout who directed the Koranic school of the mosque, Mohamed Slimani the vice-president of the association and Nour Eddine Karboubi) are currently on trial before the Lille court and will hear the verdict this Friday.
The defendants are being prosecuted for breach of trust, money laundering, and three of them for attempted fraud.
During the hearing on February 8, 2024, the prosecution requested six to ten months in prison accompanied by 12 to 14 months of suspended sentence against four of them, and a simple suspended sentence against the fifth defendant, requesting an adjustment for so that they can serve their possible sentence at home.
Read alsoVilleneuve-d’Ascq: mosque leaders placed in police custody and suspected of fraud
The Villeneuve-d'Ascq mosque, which aims to be a vast
"Islamic center"
following work undertaken since the mid-2000s, is administered by an association of which Mohamed Karrat is president.
Major work to widen the mosque had been planned since 2013, but was stopped by the municipality's refusal to grant a new building permit.
The Lille administrative court rejected a first appeal from the mosque two years ago.
Those responsible for the mosque are suspected of having embezzled part of the money collected for this work.
Lots of foreign funding
Asked about the nature of the financing which allows the association to bear the costs of this work, Mohamed Karrat declared in 2016 to
La Voix du Nord
:
“Nearly 80% of the mosque is financed by donations from the faithful of Villeneuve- d'Ascq which give on average one month's salary per year
.
Except that the essayist Mohamed Louizi, in his book
Why I left the Muslim Brotherhood
(Michalon, 2016), assured that Mohamed Karrat was close to Brotherhood Islam and had received financial aid from a Qatari NGO , Nectar Trust (formerly Qatar Charity), suspected of discreetly financing radical Islamism throughout the world and particularly in Europe.
“We received a donation from a patron in 2008, for the construction of the mosque, which passed through the Qatar Charity foundation
,” confirmed Mohamed Karrat.
The accounts of the Islamic Center have since been scrutinized after a report from the Northern prefecture in 2022 which pointed to a lack of transparency in its balance sheets.
The prefecture also decided at the end of 2023 to suspend subsidies for the Averroès high school, where several of the leaders of the Islamic Center worked and which was largely financed by loans granted by the Islamic Center.
This private Muslim high school lost its contract with the State due to
“serious breaches of the fundamental principles of the Republic”
, which now calls its future into question.
In a 2023 report on Averroès, the prefect raised the possibility that the Islamic Center, which received donations from Qatar but also from Kuwait or Egypt, had made
“false loans”
to the establishment in order to serve as a screen for foreign funding for the high school.
Large sums of cash found at defendants' homes
An AFP journalist present at the February 8 hearing reported that the mosque's treasurer, Abdellah Ouafi, stressed that Averroès had repaid certain loans, and that steps were underway to recover the 200,000 euros still owed.
The mosque waived debts because
“the high school almost closed
,” he stressed, adding that the members of the association managing the mosque were informed of these loans, and that the faithful supported them massively.
“If the Islamic Center were a company, Averroès would be a subsidiary
,” assured a defense lawyer, Mehdi Ziatt.
Read alsoAt the Averroès high school in Lille, Salafist readings and small arrangements between friends
Among the other facts judged by the court, the mosque had acquired two houses via an SCI to set up student studios, rented in order to ensure financial
“independence”
, explained its president Mohamed Karrat.
But the prosecution stressed that it was prohibited for an association to make rental investments.
The social purpose of the mosque was to provide a dignified place of worship and services for the faithful, but not to finance a high school or student accommodation, insisted the prosecutor.
During their searches at the homes of the five defendants, investigators found several thousand euros in their possession.
“The Republic fought the wrong battle, shot itself in the foot
,” said another defense lawyer, Me Jérôme Pianezza.
“When there is a CIV, it prevents us from praying in cellars and garages, and we know what that leads to
. ”
Following the first revelations from Le
Figaro
about his legal troubles, Mohammed Karrat decided to sue the newspaper for defamation.