Moroccan imam Hassan Iquioussen was arrested near Mons, Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne confirmed to Belga. He was targeted by a European arrest warrant issued by the French courts. The 58-year-old preacher, implicated in France for remarks deemed “contrary to the values of the Republic”, was under an expulsion order signed by the French Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin. Untraceable since August 30, a European arrest warrant was finally issued once morest him for “evading the execution of a deportation decision”. French investigators quickly thought he had fled to Belgium.
The expulsion judgment accuses him of “proselytizing speech interspersed with remarks inciting hatred and discrimination and carrying a vision of Islam contrary to the values of the Republic”.
“This man cannot stay in Belgium,” Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration Nicole De Moor (CD&V) said on Twitter. “That means we’re working with the judiciary to get him out of the territory.” The procedure for handing over the imam to France might take several weeks if the person concerned objects to it.
Between legal quarrels and media battles, the debates around the imam fed French news in August, starting with the announcement of his expulsion to Morocco.
Born in France but of Moroccan nationality, Hassan Iquioussen was filed S (for state security) by the French intelligence service (DGSI).
He had been splashed by a first controversy in 2004, pinned for remarks deemed anti-Semitic in a speech on Palestine. The person concerned later recognized “inappropriate comments” and apologized.
His name then reappeared regularly in the press and public debate.
His YouTube channel, where he delivers lessons and sermons on Islam in everyday life (poverty, violence, fulfillment in the couple, etc.), has 178,000 subscribers.