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Fugitive ‘antisemitic’ imam held in Belgium fights deportation

Interior Minister called for Moroccan imam's expulsion over his 'especially virulent anti-Semitic speech'

October 12, 2022 11:09
GettyImages-1242820838
Police officers stand on a street where a house belonging to the family of Iman Hassan Iquioussen is located, in Lourches, northern France, on August 30, 2022. - The Conseil d'Etat (French Council of State) gave its green light on August 30, 2022 to the expulsion of the Iman Hassan Iquioussen decided by French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin. (Photo by FRANCOIS LO PRESTI / AFP) (Photo by FRANCOIS LO PRESTI/AFP via Getty Images)

ByShirli Sitbon, In Paris

1 min read

An Islamist imam accused of antisemitic statements who went on the run after France tried to expel him won a reprieve this week in a Belgian court aginst being sent back to France.

Moroccan imam Hassan Iquioussen, 58, was detained in Belgium last month after he fled from French police trying to arrest him. French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin had signed an order authorising his deportation to Morocco and announced his imminent arrest. A dozen police officers arrived with an arrest warrant at the imam’s home in the northern town of Lourches but left empty-handed.

Iquioussen’s deportation order says he delivered a “proselytising speech filled with remarks inciting hatred and discrimination and carrying a vision of Islam contrary to the values of the Republic.”

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France