The imam, until then based in Bagnols-sur-Cèze, arrived in Tunisia shortly before midnight on Thursday evening aboard a flight from Paris.
“I will fight to return to France where I have lived for forty years.” Reached by telephone from Tunisia where he was expelled, Imam Mahjoub Mahjoubi denounces an “arbitrary” decision and declares that he will take legal action in France.
“If the court does not do me justice, I will appeal, and then I will appeal to the European Court” of human rights, he explained to AFP. “I did not insult the Jewish community or the French flag,” assures the imam, aged 52, whose wife and five children are of French nationality.
Mahjoub Mahjoubi arrived in Tunisia shortly before midnight on Thursday evening aboard a flight from Paris. He is currently in the locality of Soliman, about thirty kilometers east of the capital Tunis.
In a video relayed on social networks, the imam, until then based in Bagnols-sur-Cèze (Gard), had described in particular the ” tricolor flag ” as a ” satanic flag ” that has ” no value with Allah .” On Tuesday, prefect Jérôme Bonet affirmed on franceinfo that there was “ obviously a call to hatred ” in this specific case. He states, “We are dealing with content which fundamentally calls into question our values and which falls within the scope of the law ”.
Established in France in the mid-1980s, the imam was in the crosshairs of the French Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, who requested the withdrawal of his residence permit on Sunday.
