By Associated Press
PARIS — The French Interior Ministry says that a Moroccan with links to an outlawed Islamist group has been expelled from France, citing his bent for violence and his “hostility” toward French values.
The ministry statement says Ali Benhammou was expelled on Thursday to Morocco.
France occasionally expels Islamists suspected of posing a threat. The country is in a state of heightened vigilance since launching a military campaign in mid-January against Islamist radicals in Mali.
The statement says Benhammou had been part of two cells linked to the Forsane Alizza group banned last year. It says he’d also tried to travel to Iran to reach Afghanistan.
The statement says that French authorities have “no doubt” about “his hostility toward the Republic.”
