Expelled from France to Tunisia on Thursday February 22, imam Mahjoub Mahjoubi indicated he wanted to return to France. He is accused of comments contrary to the values of the Republic.
12 hours after his arrest, the imam who officiated in a mosque in Bagnols-sur-Cèze (Gard), Mahjoub Mahjoubi, was expelled from France to Tunisia on Thursday February 22. From Tunisia, Friday February 23, he explained that he wanted to return to France. His “objective” is “that France gives me my right, my legitimacy to defend myself, (…) at least that I can express myself before a judge”. On BFMTV, the preacher said: “I will do everything to find my loved ones, to find my job, in the days or weeks to come.” The imam assured that his “place is not here”, but with his family who are not in Tunisia but “on the other side of the Mediterranean”. He refers in particular to his partner and his five children, all of French nationality, one of whom “has cancer”. “I only ask to be heard by the judges. If I have to be sanctioned, I will accept the sanction… If it is just. I have lived for forty years in this country, the country of human rights and the citizen. I will do everything to assert my rights.”
Friday, February 23, Mr. Samir Hamroun, the imam’s lawyer, announced that a “freedom summary” would be filed before the Paris administrative court. “We are contesting this expulsion on the merits, the form, and on this procedure. We will now go through an interim freedom order to demonstrate to the administrative court that he leaves deep ties in France and that he has almost nothing in Tunisia ” he said this morning on RMC.
For his lawyer, Mahjoub Mahjoubi “never made” the comments he is accused of about women, “neither by quoting classic texts, nor by giving his opinion. These words never came out of his mouth. The comments on the Jews, he made them in the context of a sermon. There are no traces of these comments about women and he himself disputes it” he indicates. He also explains his client’s wish to return to France next week. A desire suspended on the acceptance or not of the interim freedom order filed by his lawyer. “This appeal aims to suspend the decision of the Minister of the Interior and return it to the merits, which will be studied in several months,” his lawyer told BFMTV. The interim freedom order requires a response from the court within two days. If the latter is accepted, the imam could return to French territory within two weeks, or even as early as next week.
Mahjoub Mahjoubi deported to Tunisia on Thursday February 22
“The radical ‘Imam’ Mahjoub Mahjoubi has just been expelled from the national territory, less than 12 hours after his arrest,” the Minister of the Interior rejoiced Thursday evening on the social network criticized new immigration law. “It is the demonstration that the immigration law, without which such a rapid expulsion would not have been possible, makes France stronger,” assured Gérald Darmanin. And to add: “We will not let anything pass.” Arriving in Tunisia, Mahjoub Mahjoubi explained that he was “very well received by the authorities” and his family, to applause as indicated to RMC.
Targeted by a request to withdraw his residence permit, imam Mahjoub Mahjoubi was arrested on Thursday, around 12:30 p.m., at his home in Bagnols-sur-Cèze, in Gard. The man of Tunisian origin had been placed in a detention center in the Paris region, according to BFMTV. At the time of his arrest, Mahjoub Mahjoubi, “in shock”, according to his entourage, had read the expulsion order signed by the Minister of the Interior.
In detail, the expulsion order indicates that the imam is accused of having “conveyed a literal, retrograde, intolerant and violent conception of Islam, likely to encourage behavior contrary to the values of the Republic, discrimination against women, withdrawal into identity, tensions with the Jewish community and jihadist radicalization”, relays Le Figaro who was able to consult it. Still according to the decree, Mahjoub Mahjoubi repeatedly presented women “as being inferior, weak and venal”, claiming that they should be “controlled by men” and could “be sequestered in the name of religion”. Among the other criticisms made of him, we also note “hateful and discriminatory” remarks that he would have made when referring to “non-Muslims” or even “French society”.
“We are witnessing an unprecedented violation of fundamental rights and public freedoms,” emphasized Me Hamroun to BFMTV, adding that Mahjoub Mahjoubi was not the subject of any summons to be able to explain the controversy who surrounds him after the broadcast of a video of one of his sermons.
A preliminary investigation for condoning terrorism
The affair surrounding Mahjoub Mahjoubi began on February 18 with the broadcast of a video of the imam giving a sermon in which he evokes “tricolor flags which gangrene us” subsequently described as “Satanist” standards “. It is never specified whether the French flag is in question and the imam assures in his defense that no, that he made a slip of the tongue between “tricolor” and “multicolor” when wanting to talk about African flags.
The Minister of the Interior immediately reacted by requesting the withdrawal of the imam’s residence permit, an initiative justified not only by the videos of the sermon, but by the remarks made by Mahjoub Mahjoub during previous sermons according to the prefect of Gard, Jérôme Bonet. The prefect who reported the imam to the public prosecutor of Gard, believes that the remarks in question “call into question the principles of the Republic”. After the reports, a preliminary investigation into advocating terrorism was opened. Minister Gérald Darmanin, for his part, assured that “no call to hatred will remain[it] without answer”.