The Council of State confirmed this Friday, March 29, the expulsion order of imam Mahjoub Mahjoubi issued on February 22. The latter had filed an interim application with the Council of State, which has just rejected it.
The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, welcomed this decision on the social network X, calling it
“an important victory against radical Islam”
.
“Slip of the tongue”
Imam of the small town of Bagnols-sur-Cèze (Gard), Mahjoub Mahjoubi was arrested and then deported last February to Tunisia. Living in France since the mid-1980s, married and father of five children, the imam was in the crosshairs of the Minister of the Interior, who had requested the withdrawal of his residence permit a few days before his expulsion.
Mahjoub Mahjoubi was notably accused of broadcasting a video in which he described the
“tricolor flag”
– without specifying whether it was the French flag – as a
“satanic flag”
which would have
“no value with Allah”
(God in Arabic). He defended himself by evoking a
“slip of the tongue”
, explaining that he was in reality denouncing the rivalries between supporters of Maghreb countries during the recent African Cup of Nations (CAN) football.