The case seemed simple at first: France wanted to recover Hassan Iquioussen, a 58-year-old Moroccan preacher “file S”, to deport him to Morocco. And Belgium, where he had taken refuge, would hand him over quickly on the basis of the European arrest warrant issued by Paris. Eight weeks later, the case has become singularly complicated, and its outcome is still uncertain.

Monday, December 5, in Brussels, it is the Council for Alien Litigation, an independent administrative court seized “in extreme urgency” of a request from the imam’s lawyers, who intervened. He declared inadmissible this appeal intended to prevent a possible expulsion of Mr. Iquioussen which, according to this body, must indeed be handed over to the French authorities. The latter has the possibility of appealing, but this procedure is not suspensive.

Previously, its defenders had pleaded, successfully, before the Belgian courts, the illegality of such a surrender. By confirming that the law of the European Union – and therefore that of Belgium – does not provide for a criminal sanction in the event of “evasion of the execution of a deportation measure », which is the incrimination retained by France in the European arrest warrant that it issued against the preacher of Moroccan nationality, born in Denain (North).

Arrested on September 30 near the city of Mons, where he had taken refuge after having fled, according to him, France on August 25, the imam had lodged an appeal against this mandate. The summary court of Tournai, then the Court of Appeal of Mons, agreed with him. And at the beginning of November, he left Tournai prison to be placed under house arrest, under electronic surveillance.

“Perfect co-operation”

In an attempt to circumvent this legal obstacle, the Belgian authorities, who had indicated from the outset their desire to expel Mr. Iquioussen, then proceeded to an administrative arrest. On November 16, the imam was placed in the “closed return center” of Vottem (a detention center in the province of Liège) with a view to his removal. An order to leave the territory had been notified to him the day before, hence the administrative appeal filed by his Belgian lawyer, M^e Nicolas Cohen, before the Aliens Litigation Council.

Taking up the proposals of the Minister of Justice, Vincent Van Quickenborne, the Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration, Nicole De Moor, had described the imam as “hate preacher” and underlined that, given the fact that he was staying illegally in Belgium, he would be handed over to France as soon as possible. “The French authorities are still demanding his return so that they can send him to Morocco”, underlined the office of the Secretary of State in a press release. The imam’s lawyers evoked, for their part, a decision “purely outrageous”.

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