A Tunisian imam expelled Thursday February 22 by France, where the authorities accuse him of having made hateful remarks, denounced in a statement a decision “ unfair ” And “ arbitrary “, and announced that he was going to take legal action to have it annulled and return to his family.
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Mahjoub Mahjoubi was sent back to Tunisia this Thursday evening, four days after the announcement by the Minister of the Interior. This Tunisian imam, in France for almost 40 years, has been arrested then expelled to Tunisia where he arrived shortly before midnight, aboard a flight from Paris.
Last Sunday, on the social network Gerald Darmanin had denounced this imam’s calls to hatred in some of his sermons and demanded his expulsion. This Thursday, he was pleased that this rapid expulsion was made possible thanks to to the new immigration law, adopted in December. This Friday, February 23, specialists in immigration law qualified this assertion as false.
This was already the case before…
According to the law, a foreigner who benefits from almost absolute protection, because he has resided for more than twenty years in the territory and because he has private and family ties in France, can lose this protection in certain circumstances. But this was the case well before the law, promulgated less than a month ago.
“ The text before the Darmanin law allowed, in exactly the same circumstance, that is to say with a person who had entered French territory for a long time, married to a French woman, with French children, to proceed with their expulsion. This already existed “, explains Stéphane Maugendre, lawyer and specialist in foreigners’ law.
The imam’s lawyer will take the matter to the administrative court
The speed of the procedure is not new either. It is possible when a Minister of the Interior judges that there is absolute urgency to remove a foreigner. “ The use of absolute urgency allowed Gérald Darmanin to avoid any contradictory debate and any referral to a judge », continues the lawyer.
The imam’s lawyer will now appeal to the administrative court to try to suspend the expulsion order and bring his client back to France, but also to obtain an examination of the merits of this case.
A year and a half ago, it was under the same conditions that the Minister of the Interior obtained the expulsion of Moroccan imam Hassan Iquioussen. The latter will defend himself in court on Monday.
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