Fatoumata Siddique and his husband, Mohamed Farah Kishore, left this month after a decision by France to revoke their citizenship without any due process. Kishore is an Egyptian citizen and Siddique an Algerian citizen. (Cyril Almeida/Canadian Press)

France has taken the unusual step of refusing to say whether or not Kishore or Siddique might face deportation, as they would at any other country. The government also refused to explain the implications of the decision to revoke their French citizenship.

And in a related development, an Egyptian court on Friday sentenced an Algerian citizen and his wife to ten months in jail and gave them a year in a remand centre for domestic violence after the couple was found guilty of beating their son and a neighbour.

The case stems from a dispute in 2012 in Cairo over the possession of a DVD with “extreme material” about Islam. A friend of the husband had purchased this DVD from a video store and gave it to the husband, who found it objectionable. When the couple confronted each other, they allegedly hit one another, forcing the wife to stab the son.

The family appealed to Egyptian and European courts and eventually won the case against the husband on free speech grounds and the wife was acquitted of committing an illegal act.

The verdict will apply to Abdelmalek, who has the right to be French, if France does not follow through on its threat to revoke his citizenship.