This Tuesday, August 30 marks the end of a soap opera which saw the Minister of the Interior and the Administrative Court of Paris openly oppose on the question of the expulsion of Imam Hassan Iquioussen, a famous preacher close to the Brothers Muslims. On Twitter, Gérald Darmanin announced that the Council of State had “validated the expulsion of Mr. Iquioussen”, accused of making comments “anti-Semitic and contrary to equality between women and men”. He hails “a great victory for the Republic” and assures that this expulsion will take place.
A few minutes after the minister’s announcement, the interim judge of the Council of State confirmed his opinion, and justified the authorization of the expulsion by “the anti-Semitic remarks made for several years at numerous conferences” by the imam , as well as for his speeches “on the inferiority of women”. Considered as “acts of explicit provocation”, the lasting actions of Hassan Iquioussen, contrary to the values of the Republic, justify his expulsion from the national territory. In opposition to the opinion of the Paris administrative court, the Council of State judges that the expulsion does not constitute “a disproportionate attack on the private and family life” of the man.
The imam’s lawyer, Lucie Simon, reacted, also on Twitter, believing that this decision symbolized “a weakened rule of law” and deplored “an alarming context of pressure from the executive on the judiciary”, before clarify that “the legal battle” continued, not excluding “referring to the European Court of Human Rights. At the beginning of August, the ECHR had refused to suspend the expulsion, explaining that it was not granting measures temporary suspension “only exceptionally”, when the applicant was exposed “to a real risk of irreparable damage”.
