HASSAN IQUIOUSSEN. Imam Hassan Iquioussen will soon be fixed. The decision as to the validity of the expulsion procedure aimed at him must be rendered shortly by the Council of State. Back to the case.
[Mis à jour le 29 août 2022 à 10h49] Hassan Iquioussen will soon know his fate. The imam, who is the subject of an expulsion procedure initiated by the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, could be forced by the Council of State to leave French territory. The highest administrative court must render its decision shortly, which had been seized by the tenant of Place Beauvau after the cancellation of its decision by the administrative court of Paris. Meeting on Friday August 26, the Council of State had indicated that it would decide “early next week.” The decision should therefore fall on Monday August 29 or Tuesday August 30, 2022. The government hopes that the expulsion of this preacher with “hate speech against the values of France” according to Gérald Darmanin, will be confirmed by this independent institution. Otherwise, “it would be a very bad signal” warned Olivier Véran, the government spokesman. Why could Imam Hassan Iquioussen be expelled? What is he accused of? Explanations
It all started when Gérald Darmanin, Minister of the Interior, announced on July 28, 2022, on Twitter: “This preacher has been making hate speech against the values of France for years, contrary to our principles of secularism and equality between women and men. He will be expelled from French territory.” A ministerial order of expulsion is then launched against Hassan Iquioussen.
When the Ministry of the Interior ordered the imam’s expulsion, Gérald Darmanin explained that the imam had been speaking “to a large audience since the beginning of the 2000s. […]a proselytizing speech interspersed with remarks inciting to hatred and discrimination and carrying a vision of Islam contrary to the values of the Republic”. In addition, Hassan Iquioussen is accused of holding “a speech with an anti-Semitic content particularly virulent”, to advocate the submission of women to men. In addition, the imam, according to the decree, would encourage separatism and display a “contempt for certain republican values such as secularism and democratic functioning of French society”.
A week after Gérald Darmanin’s initial tweet, on Friday August 5, 2022, the Paris administrative court suspended the deportation to Morocco of Hassan Iquioussen. The court recognized “retrograde remarks” on the place of women in society, but assured that their expulsion is not justified.
Following this decision, Gérald Darmanin appealed to the Council of State. Thursday, August 4, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) had rejected a request for suspension of this expulsion measure. The Minister of the Interior, who revealed on August 8 that Hassan Iquioussen had been on file S for eighteen months, intended to follow through on his approach. According to statements reported by Franceinfo, he was “prepared to go as far as legislative changes if the law is not in tune with the nature of the threat posed by delinquent foreigners”.
Thus, the Council of State was seized by the Minister of the Interior on the legitimacy of the suspension of the request for expulsion of the imam. If the court considers that it is not legitimate, the expulsion order of the Ministry of the Interior may be executed.
Thursday August 25, 2022, the investigative newspaper Mediapart revealed that Gérald Darmanin dined with Hassan Iquioussen in 2014. According to the media, the current Minister of the Interior aspired at the time to conquer the town hall of Tourcoing. He then wishes to get closer to those who constitute the left-wing electorate in place at the head of the city and the country (François Hollande was then President of the Republic). It is therefore on this occasion that he organizes a dinner with the representatives of the Muslim community of the North. “We had a very nice evening. It was very positive, we agreed on 99.9% of the topics of conversation,” said Hassan Iquioussen, to Mediapart. For his part, Gérald Darmanin did not wish to react.