French athletics champion now faces deportation to Morocco

Competing under the colors of a club from Nanterre, Hassane R. had won the French 1,500-meter championship title in Créteil in 3 min 54 sec and had also become French cross-country runner-up in Rennes. Until recently, he still took part as a volunteer in sporting events, reports Le Parisien.

On Bladi.net : Convicted in France, this Moroccan national who has lived there since childhood overturns his OQTF

Before the Nanterre court, the sixty-year-old expressed his bitterness at never having obtained French citizenship. “Why did they refuse to give me my papers when I was French athletics runner-up?” he said. According to the daily newspaper, offenses related to drugs committed in his youth had delayed the examination of his case.

From French champion to detention center

Under psychiatric care for around twenty years, Hassane R. has held disabled-worker status since 2015. At the beginning of June, he had stopped receiving treatment when he made serious threats during his transfer to a detention center, after being extensively insulted by a police officer, remarks recorded by the officer’s body camera.

In particular, he threatened to blow up the Colombes police station with “450 kg of explosives.” The court found him guilty while noting impaired judgment. He was sentenced to five years of socio-judicial monitoring, with compulsory psychiatric treatment and a ban on possessing a weapon, without any additional prison sentence.

On Bladi.net : He has never lived in Morocco, yet France can deport him there

An OQTF had nevertheless already been issued against him in March following earlier threats. Upon leaving the courthouse, the prefecture immediately had him taken to the Palaiseau administrative detention center.