A Belgian court has confirmed the conviction for sexism handed down against Belgian Islamist Redouane Ahrouch over a television appearance in April of 2018.
The Court of Cassation, the supreme court of the Belgian justice system, has confirmed the conviction against Mr Ahrouch, who was found guilty of violating sexism legislation in May of 2019 and given a six-month suspended prison sentence, along with a €5,000 (£4,344/$5,210) fine.
Ahrouch appealed the initial court ruling but lost the appeal in February, although the sentence was reduced from six to four months suspended, taking the case to the Belgian supreme court in the last effort to have the conviction overturned but lost when the Court of Cassation upheld the conviction on June 8th, Le Libre reports.
The case originates from a complaint against Ahrouch, the leader of Belgium’s Islam Party, who appeared on a television programme C’est Pas Tous les Jours Dimanche (It’s Not Every Sunday) in April of 2018 with columnist Emmanuelle Praet and refused to shake her hand or even look at her due to the fact she is a woman.
Mr Ahrouch founded the Islam Party earlier in the year in 2018 and caused a stir after pushing for policies to make Belgium a more sharia-compliant country.
Our goal is a one hundred per cent Islamic state,” Ahrouch said shortly after launching his party and advocated for various policies, including segregating women and men on public transportation.
In May of 2018, Ahrouch was fired from his day job as a local bus driver in Brussels due to his public remarks, with a spokeswoman for the Brussels Intercommunal Transport Company (STIB) rating that Ahrouch’s remarks were in contradiction with the values of the company.
Ahrouch is also not the only member of the Islam Party to be involved in legal issues in recent years. Last year, former municipal elections candidate for the Islam Party Philippe Latteur was sentenced by the Brussels criminal court over death threats he had made while running in the 2018 municipal elections.