According to information obtained by Europe 1, the prefect of the Hauts-de-Seine department, Alexandre Brugère, has ordered the immediate closure of the sports association “Les Héros,” based in Villeneuve-la-Garenne. Officially, several administrative irregularities are cited. But behind the scenes, the prefecture suspects communitarian practices rooted in Islamist separatism.
It is yet another sensitive case in the Hauts-de-Seine. According to Europe 1’s reporting, prefect Alexandre Brugère issued a closure order targeting the sports association “Les Héros,” based in Villeneuve-la-Garenne. For several weeks, state services had been monitoring the organization over suspected communitarian drift.
Breaches of the law: the official grounds
In a letter sent to the association’s members, which Europe 1 was able to review, the prefect lists several administrative grounds to justify the immediate closure. Among the points raised by the prefecture is, first, the prohibition barring one of the association’s officials from serving on its leadership team. The man had reportedly been convicted on several criminal counts, legally barring him from supervising or running an associative activity of this nature. According to the authorities, he was nonetheless the only supervisor officially declared by the organization.
Another cited breach: the absence of a posted insurance certificate on the association’s premises. But behind these official reasons, the authorities in fact suspect an operation marked by Islamist separatism.
Suspicions of communitarian practices
Behind these official grounds for closure, the authorities see a far more sensitive file. State services suspect the existence of communitarian practices built on a logic of Islamist separatism. The Hauts-de-Seine prefecture suspects the organization of holding fitness sessions reserved for women wearing the Islamic veil. Three afternoons a week, the association reportedly took private control of a weight room in the municipal sports complex for women-only classes, effectively excluding all other users of this public facility for the duration of the session.
The same pattern was found at the Villeneuve-la-Garenne municipal swimming pool. Several evening slots were reportedly reserved for groups of women, again following a logic of gender segregation. Moreover, no official municipal order authorizing these reservations of public infrastructure was ever published or brought to the prefecture’s attention.
A precedent in Colombes
This closure echoes that of the Lissen language institute in Colombes a year ago. Officially, the prefect cited safety problems at the time: non-compliant fire extinguishers, defective emergency exits.
But the authorities in fact suspected the existence of a Koranic school concealed behind the language institute. Classes in which boys and girls were separated, along with the presence of books depicting women and children without faces, had notably alerted state services to possible religious fundamentalism.
The fight against separatism continues
With this latest closure, prefect Alexandre Brugère is pressing ahead with his strategy of combating Islamist separatism in the Hauts-de-Seine. Last October, he had already secured the closure of the Alfoulk institute, suspected of communitarianism and religious rigorism. A few days later, after the discovery of radical sermons attributed to Serge Althaparro, the association’s president, the prefect referred the matter to the public prosecutor under an Article 40 procedure.
According to the authorities, these sermons notably glorified polygamy and forced marriage and included insults against elected officials of the Republic. On October 28, 2025, the Alfoulk association finally announced its permanent closure.
