The Moroccan imam Hassan Iquioussen was placed this Wednesday morning in a closed center in Belgium to be deported, announce the Belgian authorities. “The man lost his right of residence in France and had to return to his country of origin, Morocco. He was therefore placed in a closed return center with a view to his removal from the territory, ”said the Belgian Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration, Nicole de Moor, in a press release.
“He gives no sign that he wants to return voluntarily (to France). The French authorities are still demanding (his return so that we can send it to Morocco,” she added. Belgian justice refused a second time to hand over the imam to France on Tuesday, on the grounds that the offense with which Hassan Iquioussen is accused, namely the “evasion of the execution of a deportation measure” did not exist in Belgian law.
“I will not fail to follow this case carefully with my services. We cannot tolerate that an extremist who has no right of residence can walk around our territory. Anyone who is not allowed to be here should be fired. We remain in contact with France to allow its removal, ”said Nicole de Moor, quoted by the Belgian daily The evening.
Accused of remarks “contrary to the values of the Republic”
The 58-year-old was so far house arrest in Mons, near the French border, since his arrest by the Belgian authorities on September 30, under a European arrest warrant issued by France. His lawyer, Lucie Simon, reacted this Wednesday on Twitter, believing that Belgium was sending “a foreigner whom it considers to be illegally residing throughout Europe … in France. Or how politics tries to circumvent – once once more in this case – the judiciary. Purely outrageous. »
A deportation order had been taken once morest him by the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin in July, from whom Imam Iquioussen had escaped by fleeing to Belgium in August. He was accused of holding “a proselytizing speech interspersed with remarks inciting hatred and discrimination and carrying a vision of Islam contrary to the values of the Republic”.
