Join on WhatsApp
Join on Telegram
Rabat – Following long legal back and forth between France and Belgium, Belgian authorities have deported Moroccan Imam Hassan Iquioussen from the European country towards Morocco, French news outlet Le Figaro quoted AFP as reporting.
After Morocco gave a consular pass for Iquioussen’s deportation, the Moroccan imam was placed on a flight going from Brussels to the Moroccan city of Casablanca on Friday afternoon, the imam’s lawyer Me Lucie Simon told AFP.
Nicole de Moor, the Belgian Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration, has welcomed Belgium and France’s “good cooperation” on Iquioussen’s case.
“We cannot allow an extremist to roam our territory. Anyone who does not have the right to be here must be deported,” Le Figaro quoted Moor as saying.
The Moroccan Imam, who was arrested in Belgium in September last year, had been facing a European arrest warrant issued by France.
Read also: France Uses Controversial Law To Expel Moroccan Imam Iquioussen
France’s Council of State gave the green light for Iquioussen’s deportation in 2022 after the French Ministry of Interior accused the Moroccan Imam of “proselytizing speech interspersed with inciting hatred and discrimination.”
According to converging reports, Brussels attempted to deport the imam back to France last November, but was met with silence from the French side.
Belgium then decided to deport Iquioussen to Morocco instead of keeping him “unreasonably” detained.
“In order to not prolong the detention of Hassan Iquioussen unreasonably, the person concerned will be returned to the Moroccan border,” news outlet BFMTV quoted Belgian authorities as saying.
The news comes after Moroccan authorities in September 2022 canceled a consular pass they had issued to have the 58-year-old imam deported to his home country.
Iquioussen was born in France and is the father of five French-born children and the grandfather of 15. However, the imam is not a French citizen and his request to renew his 10-year residency in the European country was last year in the wake of controversy surrounding his potential deportation
