Belgian justice upholds refusal to extradite Imam Ikiussen to France

Hassan Ikiussen will remain in Belgium until further notice. On October 23, Ministerial Delegate for Democratic Renewal and Government Spokesman Olivier Veran described as a “minor setback” Belgium’s first ruling rejecting the application of a European arrest warrant against the Islamist preacher. “. A few weeks later, and this time with an appeal, the “little bump” seems to be the way out of Europe. On November 15, the Court of Appeal of Mons upheld the refusal to send this “brother” back to France, sticking to the theses of the Muslim Brotherhood and ordering the expulsion of the interior minister targeted since the summer.

To avoid this arrest, Hasan Ikiusen sought refuge with friends in Belgium, where he was arrested on September 30 by Belgian police in close cooperation with French colleagues. He explained that he wanted to “Going to a close friend to take a step back.” a “back” which for the French authorities was pure and simple on the run. His lawyer, Mae Lucy Simon, contested the arrest warrant and argued that her client had “When leaving France, he merely and simply respected French law”. The reasoning close to the judgments of the judges on the other side of Kevren, who judge some by the summary of the verdict. Le Figaro recognized.

The Court of Appeal of Mons held that “the fact that an illegally resident alien leaves the territory of the Kingdom when he has been ordered to leave this territory does not constitute a crime” under Belgian criminal law, “if that person leaves this territory voluntarily. area”. This led the Belgian courts to refuse to enforce the mandate because, using the European text, “the fact which is the basis. [du mandat] does not constitute a violation under the law of the executing Member State”.

“The vision of Islam contradicts the values ​​of the French Republic”.

This very big “shock” is naturally hailed as a legal victory by Hasan Ikiusen’s supporters. The judgment of Mons, which may be the subject of a cassation appeal by the prosecution, creates a widespread situation in any case. Born in Denain, France, but with Moroccan citizenship, Hassan Ikiussin no longer has a residence permit and therefore no longer has legal status. He is still under an eviction order dated July 28, which is essentially being challenged by his defense before administrative justice.

He is specifically accused of spreading “Since the early 2000s, in front of a wide audience, through conferences that he gives and posts online, proselytizing speech interspersed with hateful and discriminatory expressions and a vision of Islam that contradicts the values ​​of the French Republic.” held in 2004, 2005 and 2014 “a speech with a particularly violent anti-Semitic content, which is close to the speech of the Ramadan brothers”. and contribute “Discrimination against women through discourse promoting their representation in favor of men.”

On August 30, 2022, the State Council decided that the preacher “for several years, during numerous conferences and speeches, an anti-Semitic discourse transmitted by social networks to a wide audience has been formed.” as well as “With many interventions still available on the Internet, the last of which was carried out in 2021. [développer] systematic discourse on women’s inferiority’.

Lively debates

But if Hasan Ikiusen is illegal in France, he is also currently in Belgium, therefore he is being deported and is also registered in the Schengen information system. Now we freely imagine that he would like to start the procedure for obtaining a residence permit. It remains to be seen how the Belgian authorities will react. And the internal debate could be very lively. In 2021, the Kingdom was rocked by controversy over the influence and strategy of the Muslim Brotherhood. Proponents of vigilance against Islamism and killers of “Islamophobia” were opposed. On September 2, the cabinet of Belgian Federal Minister of Justice Vincent Van Quickenborn (Flemish Liberal) told local media: “if [la présence d’Iquioussen en Belgique] should actually be confirmed, the procedure of propagandists of foreign hatred will be preserved. This means that he will be fired. »