Cleric who condoned wife-beating to be deported
05/10/2004 - 11:56:53Police arrested a Muslim prayer leader who condoned wife-beating today, after France’s highest administrative body ruled he can be expelled from the country.
Border police were holding Abdelkader Bouziane so he could be deported to Algeria but officials did not specify when the expulsion would take place. He was arrested near one of his homes in the south-eastern city of Lyon.
Bouziane was first deported to his native Algeria in April on orders from the Interior Ministry. But the imam returned to France a month later after an administrative court suspended the ruling.
The Council of State this week overturned that suspension, clearing the way for Bouziane to be deported again.
France fears some imams are spreading messages of violence in their mosques.
