The Belgian authorities have no intention of welcoming the imam deemed to be radical in France, Hassan Iquioussen, who was the subject of an expulsion order on Tuesday and who disappeared from his home in Lourches, in Hauts-de-France. French authorities believe he took refuge in Belgium. “At the moment there is no confirmation of its possible presence in our country”indicates in an SMS the office of the Minister of Justice, Vincent Van Quickenborne. “The Belgian intelligence and security services, however, leave nothing to chance and are in contact with the French services. If his presence in Belgium should indeed be confirmed, the procedure for foreign hate preachers will be followed. This therefore means that he will be expelled”.
The untraceable imam is therefore persona non grata in France, in Belgium, but also in the country of his nationality, Morocco, which suspended in extremis the consular pass which would have allowed the imam to return to Morocco.
The Moroccan media Le Desk publishes this consular pass online, drafted on August 1 by the Consulate General of Morocco in Lille, then suspended for lack of “consultation” according to an AFP source. Born in France but of Moroccan nationality, Hassan Iquioussen has five children and 15 grandchildren, all French.
Under European arrest warrant
To this imbroglio is added that France has issued a European arrest warrant, the legality of which his lawyer disputes. Several jurists believe that if the imam left France, he executed the expulsion order. “If Imam Iquioussen is arrested in Europe and Morocco no longer wants to take him back, where does he go?” What’s next in this story?”reacts to AFP the RN deputy from the North, Sébastien Chenu. “I would like our brilliant lawyers and Minister of the Interior to explain to us what they have in mind”.
The minister, Gérald Darmanin, expelled the imam on the basis of a report from the DGSI. The Council of State validated its decision pinning “anti-Semitic remarks” and “a systematic discourse on the inferiority of women”. The imam had unsuccessfully requested in 1984 and 1990 his French naturalization.