Pending his expulsion, the released Pessac imam will have to report three times a day to the police station

He was able to return home. The Nigerien president of the Pessac mosque (Gironde), in the process of being expelled since August, was placed under house arrest this Wednesday at the end of his legal period of detention in the Paris region, announced the prefecture of the department. “He now remains in an irregular situation in the territory and will not be regularized. He must report three times a day to the police station, is not allowed to work and his travel is authorized within the limits of the commune of Pessac.she clarified.

Abdouramane Ridouane, 59, president of this mosque located in the Bordeaux metropolis, was arrested at his home on August 8 in application of an expulsion order issued by the Ministry of the Interior and placed in an administrative detention center in Seine-et-Marne. The authorities accuse him of comments or positions – made or relayed on social networks – accusing France of practicing “state Islamophobia”.

He would also have “justified terrorist acts” et “provoked to discrimination or hatred towards Western countries, the State of Israel as well as all people of the Jewish religion”. In question, messages “legitimizing” the deadly terrorist attack perpetrated on October 7, 2023 by Hamas against Israel, or even saluting the memory of the former leader of the terrorist organization, Ismaïl Haniyeh, after his assassination on July 31 in Tehran.

Ban on leaving French territory

The legal period of detention (90 days) expired on Wednesday morning and Abdouramane Ridouane left the Mesnil-Amelot center (Seine-et-Marne). “As the authorities of his country of origin have not yet issued a consular pass, the expulsion procedure will now continue under the regime of house arrest”continues the prefecture.

The imam must also appear in Meaux (Seine-et-Marne) on January 13 for “apology of terrorism”. This criminal procedure – triggered by a report from the Ministry of the Interior – is based on the same elements as the administrative procedure. Until then, the court placed him under judicial supervision, with the obligation to report to the police station once a week and, paradoxically, a ban on leaving French territory.

For his lawyer, Maître Sefen Guez Guez, the conditions of the house arrest of the controversial imam “clearly relate to relentlessness”with a scoring obligation “21 times more restrictive” than that provided by justice, compared to that implemented by the Gironde prefecture. The lawyer plans to challenge these conditions before the administrative court.