Agencies | 19 Rabi ul Awwal 1439/08 December 2017

France has ordered a halal supermarket in Paris to close because it does not sell pork or alcohol, The Independent has reported.

The Good Price mini-market in Colombes did not comply with the conditions of its lease, which stated the shop must act as a “general food store,” the Court of Nanterre ruled. 

The local authority argued members of the local community were not being served properly because the shop did not sell pork or alcohol products. 

A bailiff’s report said the store almost exclusively stocked halal products.

When the manager, Soulemane Yalcin, was questioned at the time, he said: “It’s business. I look around me and I target what I see.”

Accoring to the Daily Mail, last year Nicole Goueta, the mayor of Colombes, visited the store to urge Mr Yalcin to begin selling alcohol and pork.

The mayor’s chief of staff, Jerome Besnard, said that he asked the owner to ‘diversify’ his range of products on sale following alleged complaints from locals.

He added that the area wants a ‘social mix’ where everyone can get hold of a selection of products.

Speaking to Le Parisien, Mr Yalcin, who opened his shop in April 2015, defended his decision not to sell the products.

He said that he was simply catering to the demands of his customers in the area.

He said: ‘I look around me and I target what I see. The lease states ‘general food store and related activities’ – but it all depends on how you interpret ‘related activities’.’

His lawyer argued alcohol “is not part of the general diet” and the store had no obligations to sell it as it was only a complement to food. 

The court said the products the shop stocked were “restrictive and did not fit the broad concept of general good.”

It ordered the termination of the store’s lease and ordered the eviction of the tenants.

The manager was ordered to pay €4,000(approximately R75 000) to the local authority in legal costs.