Brussels: Europe and  Arabs
The Belgian authorities, near the city of Mons, arrested Imam Hassan Echoessen, who was described by local media as a controversial imam, who was wanted by the French court. This was confirmed by Minister of Justice Vincent van Quekenborn. He will be delivered to France and then taken on a plane to Morocco. According to local media in Brussels, this came a few days after France finally succeeded in expelling the 58-year-old preacher, Hassan Ekwussen, for his radical and hateful statements, including his statements about terrorism and about women.

Hassan Ekweusen was born in France, the son of Moroccan immigrants, and he chose, as soon as he reached maturity, to retain Moroccan citizenship only, and therefore was not a holder of dual French-Moroccan citizenship. But he continued to live in France and turned out to be one of the greatest advocates of hate the country had ever known, according to Belgian media reports, which added that .
The initially smooth talker was a frequent guest on French television explaining his views on immigrants and Islam. He was able to get his message across smoothly and always caused some controversy. But it gradually became more radical and had a greater impact on the Muslim youth of France. French security services became increasingly concerned about his extremist sermons and lectures, which were filled with anti-Semitic and misogynistic comments.
According to the French media, on Friday, the Belgian authorities arrested the Moroccan imam Hassan Echoessen, who was being pursued by France, for statements that were considered "contrary to the values ​​of the Republic", and a European arrest warrant was issued against him. "I can confirm that the police arrested him today," Belgian Justice Minister Vincent van Quekenborn told AFP.

A French police source said Belgian police arrested Echoesne "without incident". He was imprisoned in the evening in the Belgian city of Tournai, close to the French border, according to an informed source. The Echoessen Support Committee said in a statement published Friday evening on its Facebook page with the last video of the preacher before his arrest that its members are "in a state of mobilization to reach his release." The French-born man of Moroccan nationality stresses that he is "French (...) in his mind" and that he went abroad "because he asked me to leave my country". "I did not wait for the minister to enjoy expelling me by force (...) in front of the cameras," he says.

The imam has been hidden since the State Council's decision to allow his expulsion at the end of August, then a European arrest warrant was issued against him by an investigative judge in Valenciennes (north) on charges of "evading the implementation of the deportation decision."

The French Minister of the Interior and Overseas Territories, Gerald Darmanin, told AFP Friday on the sidelines of a trip to Cayenne in French Guiana that he was "happy with the arrest" of the Moroccan imam. "I am pleased with the arrest of Echoessen by the Belgian services, which I sincerely thank," Darmanan said, stressing that "evading the decision to expel from national territory is a crime condemned by the Penal Code."

The expulsion order accuses him of adopting an "advocacy discourse interspersed with statements inciting hatred and discrimination and carrying an Islamic vision that contradicts the values ​​of the republic." Since then the imam has been the focus of legal controversy. His lawyer, Mai Lucy Simon, especially doubts the validity of the arrest warrant against him, stressing that it is based on an "infraction" that she considers "unsubstantiated." At the beginning of September, she asked, "Why is he being sought? Why seek his return?" The French Ministry of the Interior says that it is now up to the Belgian judiciary to hand him over to the French authorities under the arrest warrant. The procedures for the imam's extradition to France may take weeks if he objects to them. Between legal disputes and media battles, discussions about the imam fueled French newscasts in August. After announcing his deportation to Morocco, the Administrative Court in Paris suspended the decision, saying that it constituted "an disproportionate violation (...) of his private and family life."

The imam sparked controversy for the first time in 2004 because of statements deemed anti-Semitic in a speech he gave on Palestine. He later admitted that his "comments were inappropriate" and apologized.

His name reappeared regularly in the press and public debates.

And 178,000 subscribers follow his YouTube channel, through which he gives lessons and sermons about Islam in daily life, from poverty to violence and more.

Echoessen was born in France and decided when he came of age not to seek French citizenship. He says that he abandoned her at the age of seventeen under the influence of his father, and then tried in vain to get her back.

His five children and 15 grandchildren are French, residing in northern France.