The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Thursday (June 15) declared inadmissible an application filed by Moroccan imam Hassan Iquioussen, who had fled France to Belgium after an expulsion order, before being deported to Morocco via Brussels.
Mr. Iquioussen had lived regularly in France since his birth in 1964. Imam, he was also a lecturer, notably on YouTube, note in the preamble of the ECHR. Married to a compatriot also in a legal situation in France, he had five children and sixteen grandchildren. But questioned for remarks deemed “contrary to the values of the Republic”, this imam living in the North department was targeted by an expulsion order signed by the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, on July 4, 2022.
On August 25, he fled to Belgium, where he was arrested on September 30. The preacher was then deported to Morocco on January 13. He filed an appeal with the ECHR against France on September 29, 2022, arguing in particular that his deportation to Morocco put him at risk of inhuman and degrading treatment.
To seize the ECHR, an applicant must have exhausted all legal remedies
His application was based on several articles of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights, in particular Article 3 (prohibition of torture and inhuman and degrading treatment), 6 (right to a fair trial), 8 (right to respect for private and family life), 9 (right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion), 10 (freedom of expression) and 13 (right to an effective remedy) of the Convention.
But the judges of the ECHR unanimously declared all these requests inadmissible.
The Strasbourg-based Court “emphasizes that the French authorities have not taken a decision deporting the applicant to the Kingdom of Belgium. It was following his voluntary departure for Belgium that the applicant was the subject of a deportation decision to Morocco taken by the Foreigners Office of the Kingdom of Belgium”.
Moreover, to seize the ECHR, an applicant must have exhausted all legal remedies in his country, which is not the case in this case since one of the appeals filed by the imam “is currently before the administrative court from Paris “.