Belgium: refusal to hand over Imam Iquioussen to France confirmed on appeal


Europe 1 with AFP
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3:46 p.m., November 15, 2022

The Court of Appeal of Mons, in Belgium, confirmed on Tuesday the refusal to extradite Moroccan imam Hassan Iquioussen, claimed by French justice for having evaded an expulsion order at the end of the summer, announced the public prosecutor’s office of Mons. This court confirms the decision rendered at first instance by the Court of Tournai on October 21.

“The court considers that the facts on the basis of the European arrest warrant (EAW) issued on August 31, 2022 do not constitute an offense under Belgian law,” François Demoulin, deputy public prosecutor, told AFP. . “As a result, the European arrest warrant is not executed, as the court had already decided,” he added.

Imam under house arrest

“It’s a victory for the law,” reacted Lucie Simon and Nicolas Cohen, the imam’s lawyers. On appeal as in first instance, the Belgian prosecutor’s office said it was in favor of the surrender to France, and the judgment delivered on Tuesday is likely to be challenged before the Court of Cassation. The Mons public prosecutor’s office did not immediately comment on a possible appeal.

Hassan Iquioussen, arrested on September 30 in the Mons region, in French-speaking Belgium, and now under house arrest under electronic surveillance, was at the heart of a political and legal imbroglio this summer in France.

At the end of July, the French Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin announced the expulsion of this preacher, on file S (for state security) by the intelligence services. The decree accuses him of “a proselytizing speech interspersed with remarks inciting hatred and discrimination and carrying a vision of Islam contrary to the values ​​of the Republic”.

“Respect for French law”

But Hassan Iquioussen could not be found when this decree, which he had challenged in court, had been definitively validated by the Council of State on August 31. According to Me Lucie Simon, her client “purely and simply respected French law by leaving France for Wallonia”. A closed-door hearing was held last Thursday before the indictment chamber of the Mons Court of Appeal, during which the imam and his lawyers repeated their arguments.

According to them, the offense charged in France (“evading execution of a deportation measure”) “does not exist in Belgian law”, which is supposed to be the case for an EAW to be executed. In addition, a European arrest warrant is only valid “when a prison sentence is incurred”, added Belgian lawyer Nicolas Cohen. However “in European law it is prohibited to provide for a prison sentence for behavior linked to an illegal stay or a refusal to deport”, he continued, citing case law from the Court of Justice of the EU. .



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