An administrative court here cleared a path on Friday for the return to France of a Muslim prayer leader who was expelled to Algeria after he condoned wife-beating and the stoning of women.
The expulsion order was temporarily suspended by the court, which noted that the deportation of the prayer leader, Abdelkader Bouziane, separated him from his family in France.
The ruling allows Bouziane to return to France, although at his own cost, at least until the court rules in several weeks whether the expulsion order was legal.
The court did not order the French government to arrange his return but expressed “serious doubt” about the order’s legality.
Bouziane, 52, the imam of a mosque in the Lyon suburb of Venissieux, says in the April issue of Lyon Mag that a man can beat his wife “under certain conditions, notably if the woman cheats on her husband.”