Reached by AFP, the Belgian lawyer Nicolas Cohen indicated that he was preparing an appeal before the Council for Foreign Litigation (CCE) against the order to leave the territory notified Tuesday evening to Mr. Iquioussen.
He has ten days to submit it, which suspends any possibility of expulsion during this period.
The detention in a “closed return center”, which further complicates this politico-legal imbroglio involving Paris, Brussels and Rabat, was announced on Wednesday morning by the Belgian Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration, Nicole de Moor.
The Flemish Christian Democrat official, who described Mr. Iquioussen as a “preacher of hatred”, noted that the latter was illegally residing in Belgium and was not intended to stay there.
Belgium intends to hand it over to France, according to Ms. de Moor’s office. “The French authorities are still demanding the return of (the imam) in order to be able to send him to Morocco”, underlined the Secretary of State in a press release, specifying to be “in contact with France” to carry out this expulsion. .
“I want to thank the Belgian authorities who have cooperated perfectly in this affair which ultimately concerns the security of all of Europe”, reacted the French Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin, repeating that the imam “must return in Morocco”.
The order to leave Belgian soil was notified to the person concerned on Tuesday only a few hours after the refusal, repeated by Belgian justice, to hand over the imam to French justice under a European arrest warrant (MAE ).
The Mons Court of Appeal, confirming a decision of first instance, ruled that the incrimination retained by the French courts (“evading the execution of a removal measure”) was “not constitutive of an offense under Belgian law”, which prohibits the execution of the EAW.
– “Totally political maneuver” –
According to Mr. Cohen’s account, the imam was notified of the expulsion measure – accompanied by a new deprivation of liberty -, late Tuesday afternoon in Tournai prison, while he came there for a simple procedural step.
A time imprisoned in Belgium, after his arrest in the Mons region on September 30, he had been under house arrest since All Saints’ Day under electronic surveillance.
In addition to referral to the CCE on the rights of foreigners, another appeal is possible before a court on the legality of the new deprivation of liberty, deemed “purely scandalous” by the imam’s French lawyer, Lucie Simon.
She felt that the political power “once again circumvented the judiciary” in this case.
The lawyers were also surprised at the “choice of destination” to deport their client, who was declared illegal in France.
“We have the impression that France reserves the privilege of carrying out the expulsion, for us it is a totally political maneuver”, castigated Nicolas Cohen.
According to a police source, the imam was placed in the closed center of Vottem in the municipality of Liège (east).
Hassan Iquioussen, a 58-year-old preacher from the North, on file S (for state security) by the French intelligence services, has been at the heart of a political and legal imbroglio for four months.
At the end of July, Gérald Darmanin announced his expulsion, accusing 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”.
But Mr. Iquioussen could not be found when the expulsion order, which he had challenged in court, had been definitively validated by the Council of State on August 31.
Born in France, Mr. Iquioussen had decided when he came of age not to opt for French nationality. He claims to have given it up at the age of 17 under the influence of his father and then tried in vain to recover it.