Algerian Court Sentences Boualem Sansal to Five Years in Prison

The Franco-Algerian author Boualem Sansal is a collateral victim of political and diplomatic tensions between France and Algeria.

The French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal has been sentenced to five years in prison by a court in Algiers. The relationship between the two countries is also historically burdened.

The writer Boualem Sansal, detained since November 2024 and suffering from cancer was finally sentenced Thursday to five years in prison by the Algerian justice. If the majority of the French political class is outraged by this sentence, some elected far left are more conciliatory with Algiers. The historian is in the position that would only know the facts by the account of an ignorant and possibly lying laboratory boy. Charles Seignobos (The H…

“Let’s read Boualem Sansal, let’s tell his story and let’s hope it has a happy ending,” says Míla Janišová from the Institute of Romance Studies of the Faculty of Arts of Charles University, an expert on Francophone literature of North Africa. The famous Algerian writer will be awarded the Jiří Theiner Prize at the Svět knihy fair in May. However, he will probably not be able to accept it himself –⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ he was arrested in Algiers last autumn a…

Algeria sentences elderly writer to 5 years imprisonment for undermining state integrity

Algeria’s Criminal Court of Dar El Beïda sentenced renowned 80-year-old French-Algerian writer and outspoken critic Boualem Sansal to five years in prison and fined him 500,000 Algerian dinars on Thursday. French lawyer François Zimeray, who represented Sansal in the early stages of the case, said the verdict betrayed the meaning of the word justice and urged the Algerian president to intervene on humanitarian grounds. The writer was convicted u…

France’s Emmanuel Macron calls for release of French Algerian writer

The NewsFrench President Emmanuel Macron called for the release of an award-winning French Algerian writer jailed under controversial anti-terrorism laws. Boualem Sansal was imprisoned in Algeria for five years for “undermining national unity” after saying in an interview that France had drawn the borders between Algeria and Morocco in the former’s favor. The subject is a vexed one in Algiers after France recognized Morocco’s sovereignty over a …