FRANCOIS LO PRESTI / AFP Imam Hassan Iquioussen, photographed here in June 2004 in Escaudain, in the North department. FRANCOIS LO PRESTI / AFP Imam Hassan Iquioussen, photographed here on the left in June 2004 in Escaudain, in the North department. JUSTICE – The game of cat and mouse continues. Three days after his disappearance following the decision of the Council of State to expel Imam Hassan Iquioussen from French territory, the preacher has indeed left France, according to his lawyer. Maître Lucie Simon confirmed this Friday, September 2 on BFMTV that her client was no longer in France: “I don’t know where my client is. All I can tell you is that he left French territory”. She adds that her client’s silence is “respect for the court decision”. A new revelation which comes – in part – to confirm the words of Soufiane Iquioussen, son of the imam. Thursday, he told Le Parisien that his father had “gone abroad”, while affirming that he was not in Belgium, as the first elements of the investigation suggested. On BFMTV, the lawyer for the vanished imam, however, reiterated her criticism of the European arrest warrant issued against him, describing this procedure as a “manhunt, stalking, hunting for Muslims “. You cannot view this content because you have refused the cookies associated with content from third parties. If you want to view this content, you can change your choices. And if she recognizes that the declarations of her client “lack progressivism”, the lawyer wonders about the relentlessness that the imam undergoes, in comparison with other religious men. “At the level of religious men, we rarely have progressive remarks. Why on this one in particular, it would be necessary to upset his whole life and to expel him in an irremediable way? she asks. “We will challenge him and we will expel him” A few minutes earlier, Gérald Darmanin, also a guest on BFMTV, spoke about this case. Welcoming once again “a victory for all French people”, the Minister of the Interior confirmed that Imam Iquioussen was “obviously no longer in France”, without giving further details. Confident about finding the preacher of Moroccan origin, he assures that “in the end it is always the rule of law that wins” and indicates that “we will challenge him and we will expel him”. You cannot view this content because you have refused the cookies associated with content from third parties. If you want to view this content, you can change your choices. A statement that made Lucie Simon react strongly: “What the Ministry of the Interior is saying is that we should go get him, bring him back to the territory to put him in an administrative detention center”. According to the lawyer, Gérald Darmanin “does show politics” and does not want the imam to respect the ministerial decision to stay outside of French territory. “He wants my client to do it under the cameras,” she concludes. See also on Le HuffPost: Gérald Darmanin in the footsteps of Nicolas Sarkozy You cannot view this content because you have refused the cookies associated with content from third parties. If you want to view this content, you can change your choices.