The judge in summary proceedings of the Administrative Court of Amiens has put forward “the changes that have occurred since its closure, in particular the ouster of the imam accused of radical sermons.
Le Monde with AFP
The Great Mosque of Beauvais, which usually welcomes four hundred faithful, had been closed for six months, at the end of December, by a decree of the prefecture of the Oise because of the sermons deemed radical, between April and December 2021, Imam Eddy Lecocq, a young convert formed in Saudi Arabia. The judge in summary proceedings of the Administrative Court of Amiens ordered, Monday, May 16, his “provisional reopening”, highlighting the changes that have occurred “since his closure, in particular the ouster of the imam accused of radical sermons.
“The changes that have taken place since the closure of the mosque, in particular the eviction of the previous imam, the erasure of the content of its sermons and the texts linked to the accounts of the social networks of the Manager” justify The reopening of the place, indicates the administrative court in a press release .
The judge in summary proceedings also notes that the managerial association “modified its statutes to integrate a declaration on its attachment to republican values and to establish a advisory wise advice on all aspects of worship”. He considers, under these conditions, that “the maintenance of the closure of the mosque brings a serious and manifestly illegal damage to freedom of worship” and “enjoins the prefect of the Oise to re -examine the request for reopening of the mosque” .
“Pending [this] decision”, the judge immediately authorizes the provisional reopening of the Beauvais mosque “, according to this press release.
” withdrawal “
The sermons of Imam Eddy Lecocq “value jihad”, encourage the faithful to “withdrawal of identity” and call “to hatred”, in particular Jews, Christians or homosexuals, was it specified in the Order of the prefecture. The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, had accused in mid-December this mosque of attacking the “republican model and France”. Solicited by the agency France-Presse (AFP) on Monday, the Ministry of the Interior did not wish to react at this stage.
A first appeal, filed by the Espoir and Fraternity association, had been rejected at the end of December. Justice, however, opened the possibility of requesting reopening when it would have “set up a global system” in the face of “dysfunctions”. “It’s been five months since the corrective measures were taken,” argued on Friday, the lawyer for the association, Sefen Guez Guez, during the interim hearing.
“There is not just the Eddy Lecocq problem, there is the problem of managing managers”, the association having “relayed and put on its sites and social networks” certain sermons, replied to him A prefect representative.