France Expels Imam Over Hate Speech

France's top administrative court on Tuesday gave the green light for the expulsion to Morocco of an imam accused of hate speech.

French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said in a statement; "Hassan Iquioussen will be expelled from the national territory in a great victory for the republic."

The case landed before the highest court after Paris judges blocked the Imam's deportation, which the interior ministry ordered in late July.

The Imam was guilty of anti-Semitic speech and sermons calling for women's submission to men.

His lawyers successfully applied to the Paris court for a block on the order, saying it would create disproportionate harm to his private and family life.

An interior ministry lawyer told the Council of State Iquioussen has for years spread insidious ideas that are nothing less than incitement to hatred, to discrimination and to violence.

But the preacher's lawyer retorted that some of the remarks including anti-Semitic or misogynistic speech dated back more than 20 years, pointing out that he had never been prosecuted for his public statements.