The preacher had been targeted by a European arrest warrant since September 1.
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His run has come to an end. Imam Hassan Iquioussen was arrested near Mons, in Belgium, announced the Belgian Minister of Justice, Vincent Van Quickenborne, Friday September 30. The preacher living in Lourches (North), implicated for remarks deemed contrary to the values of the Republic, had been under an expulsion order since the end of August, and targeted by a European arrest warrant since September 1.
According to the Interior Ministry, “he it is up to the Belgian courts to hand over the person concerned to the French authorities in execution of the European arrest warrant” and “the administrative procedure will come next”specify the services of Beauvau. The procedure for handing over the imam to France could take several weeks if the person concerned objects to it.
The Minister of the Interior announced on July 28 the expulsion of this preacher from the North, on file S (for state security) by the DGSI “for eighteen months”, according to him. The eviction order blamed the 58-year-old “a proselytizing speech interspersed with remarks inciting hatred and discrimination and carrying a vision of Islam contrary to the values of the Republic”. The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, has in recent weeks made it a symbol of the government’s fight against the “separatist speeches”.
The imam has since been at the heart of a legal imbroglio. His lawyer, Me Lucie Simon, disputes in particular the validity of the arrest warrant targeting him, considering that it is based “on an offence” which is not, according to her, “not incorporated”. “Why seek him out? Why would you want him back?”she wondered at the beginning of September.