The Parliament expresses solidarity with the Muslim activist Badaoui arrested yesterday in Reus

The Board of Spokespersons of the Parliament has approved this Wednesday a statement in which it expresses solidarity with the activist Mohamed Said Badaoui, president of the Association in Defense of the Muslim Community (Adedcom) of Reus arrested by the National Police yesterday in this town, in a "case of political repression and Islamophobia by the state".

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
19 October 2022 Wednesday 07:33
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The Parliament expresses solidarity with the Muslim activist Badaoui arrested yesterday in Reus

The Board of Spokespersons of the Parliament has approved this Wednesday a statement in which it expresses solidarity with the activist Mohamed Said Badaoui, president of the Association in Defense of the Muslim Community (Adedcom) of Reus arrested by the National Police yesterday in this town, in a "case of political repression and Islamophobia by the state". This is stated in the statement approved by the Board of Spokespersons with the support of ERC, CUP, JxCat and En Comú Podem, after the Police arrested Badaoui, who has opened an expulsion file for his alleged radicalization.

Mohamed Said Badaoui's file was opened after it was found that he had "very radicalized speeches" that fit the administrative type required to proceed with his expulsion from Spain. The National Police has sent the judge all the information collected about this activist, who considers that he has become radicalized, and it will be the magistrate who has the last word on his expulsion file.

After the opening of this file last August, Mohamed Said Badaoui was arrested yesterday afternoon in Reus and later transferred to the La Verneda National Police station in Barcelona. The activist has lived in Catalonia for more than 30 years, specifically in the province of Tarragona, and has three children born in Reus and Valls.

Mohamed Said Badaoui himself appeared at a press conference last August after learning that this expulsion file from Spain weighed on him to denounce that the National Police accused him of "radicalization without providing any evidence, of being an active person in networks social, to have political pretensions, to have many contacts... All without any proof," he insisted then.

The activist also criticized that the steps for his expulsion were initiated in the middle of summer, "without giving him room for maneuver and after having applied for Spanish nationality." In that press conference he also announced that political representatives of Congress had sent a letter to the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, asking that his expulsion be stopped.

According to the statement, read in plenary session of Parliament, it is an "irregular expulsion procedure", in which he has been accused "without evidence of alleged religious extremism" and "without guarantees for his defense". "The alleged reasons for issuing the expulsion order are unfounded and do not respond to specific facts or are proven with solvency", denounces the Parliament, which highlights that the detainee, "born in Morocco, has been a resident of Reus for decades".

The statement urges the Generalitat to "activate all the administrative, legal and diplomatic tools at its disposal to ensure respect for the fundamental rights of Mohamed Said Badaoui and all other people reprisals for the opaque processes derived from the immigration law" , which asks to "repeal".