The president of Algeria, Abdelmayid Tebún, has agreed to pardon the French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, detained for a year in the African country and sentenced to five years in prison, after a petition to that effect presented by his German counterpart, Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
“The President of the Republic responded favorably to this request, which he considered important given its humanitarian nature”, declared the Algerian Presidency in a statement on its account on the social network Facebook, where it specifies that Germany “will be responsible for the transfer and treatment” of Sansal, a prostate cancer patient.
An Algerian court ratified Sansal’s five-year prison sentence in July following the appeal process following the sentence handed down against him in late March for “attacks on national unity” and “publications against the security and stability of the country”, among other charges.
Sansal, 76, was sentenced on March 27 to five years in prison and the payment of a fine of 500,00 dinars, at the height of tensions between Algeria and France, which asked the Algerian authorities to proceed with his release. The Prosecutor’s Office had previously requested that this sentence be increased to ten years’ imprisonment during the appeal process.
The case opened against Sansal stems from his arrest at Algiers airport after the publication of an interview with a far-right French media outlet in which he claimed that Paris had ceded Moroccan territory to Algeria during the colonial era, words seen by Algiers as an affront to its national sovereignty.
Relief in France
French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu welcomed with “relief” the Algerian president’s decision to pardon the Franco-Algerian writer, whose conviction has put a strain on relations between the two countries. In a speech to the National Assembly, Lecornu also expressed hope that the writer can “reunite with his family as soon as possible” and “receive medical treatment.” Likewise, he thanked “with all my heart all those who contributed to this publication, the result of a respectful and serene approach,” he said.
Macron, as well as members of the French government and numerous French personalities, have repeatedly asked the Algerian authorities for the release of Sansal, who was born in Algeria and became a French citizen in 2024. Solidarity with the Algerian writer was not limited to France, but extended to Europe and Latin American countries.
Sansal is known in France for his views against Islamism and was awarded the Grand Prize for the Novel by the French Academy. His first work, The Barbarians’ Oath (1999), received the prizes for first feature (Prix du Premier Roman) and Tropics (Prix Tropiques).
