Top French court validates deportation of imam accused of hate speech

France's top administrative court has given the green light for imam Hassan Iquioussen, accused of hate speech, to be deported to Morocco. But police have been unable to arrest him.

Hassan Iquioussen (left), president of the association in charge of Escaudain mosque in the north of France, next to a preacher in June 2004. AFP - FRANCOIS LO PRESTI

Iquioussen is to be "expelled from the national territory" in a "great victory for the republic", Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin wrote on Twitter, citing a decision of the Council of State on Tuesday.

However police who tried to arrest Iquioussen at his home near the northern French town of Valenciennes on Tuesday evening were unable to find him.

Now registered on the Interior Ministry's 'wanted people file' (FPR), a source close to the case told AFP he may have fled to Belgium.

The case landed before the highest court after Paris judges blocked the imam's deportation, which the Interior Ministry ordered in late July over an "especially virulent anti-Semitic speech" and sermons calling for women's "submission" to men.

Iquioussen, 58, reaches tens of thousands of subscribers via YouTube and Facebook accounts from his home in northern France.

He was born in France but holds Moroccan citizenship.

His lawyers successfully applied to the Paris court for a block on the order, saying it would create "disproportionate harm" to his private and family life.

No serious threat

An Interior Ministry lawyer last week told the Council of State that Iquioussen had for years "spread insidious ideas" that were "nothing less than incitement to hatred, to discrimination and to violence".

But the preacher's lawyer said some of the remarks – including anti-Semitic or misogynistic speech – dated back more than 20 years, pointing out that he had never been prosecuted for his public statements.

"Yes, Mr Iquioussen is a conservative. He has made retrograde statements on women's place in society," Lucie Simon said.

"But that does not constitute a serious threat to public order."

In a series of tweets Simon said the decision to greenlight Iquioussen's deportation had occurred in an "alarming context" with "the executive exerting pressure on the judiciary".  

Her client, she added, was considering taking his case back to the European Court of Human Rights.

Le Conseil d’Etat confirme l’expulsion de Hassan Iquioussen dans un contexte alarmant de pression de l’exécutif sur le judiciaire (1/4)

— Lucie Simon (@LucieSimon94) August 30, 2022

The Interior Ministry representative said the imam's words created "fertile ground for separatism and even terrorism", insisting that he remained "an anti-Semite".

Darmanin has warned he would try to change the law if judges found Iquioussen could not be expelled.

(with wires)