Youne highly anticipated first appearance. Pardoned on November 12 and returned to France last Tuesday, Boualem Sansal, 81, broke the year-long silence that resulted from his arbitrary detention. This Sunday, November 23, the author first appeared on television, at 8 p.m. French news 2. His impactful speech, as its name suggests, in recent months, crystallized tensions between Algeria and Paris.
In this highly tense climate, Boualem Sansal’s words, for now, remain limited. “I control my every word. I worry about my family. If I go back to Algeria, I’m afraid my wife will be arrested. I think about my cellmates, Christophe Gleizes and dozens of political prisoners,” said the writer. “We are aware of the structural constraints weighing on Boualem Sansal, whose words will be considered and considered,” Arnaud Benedetti, founder of the committee supporting Boualem Sansal, warned, while the appeal of journalist Christophe Gleizes, who was sentenced to seven years in prison on June 29, is scheduled for December 3 in Algiers.
“Psychologically, I can’t write”
The author still remembers the after-effects of his detention: “After a year in prison, you lose your vocabulary. You can also see that I had difficulty finding my words. » Despite appearing weak, he explained: “I’m fine. I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. I was treated in a truly extraordinary manner by conscientious teachers and doctors…and I left their hands in good health. »
Boualem Sansal further explained the difficulties of returning to everyday life after a year of detention: “Life was difficult in prison. We felt like we were dying (…) It was complicated. I rediscovered the smell, the whisper… I think it took me a few days to reorganize my ideas. Certain things excited me, like the simple aroma of coffee…”
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The conditions of his detention were very difficult: “I was in a normal prison at the same time, but we were belittled on all sides. We couldn’t move, we couldn’t talk, we couldn’t act as we wanted. There was no contact with other prisoners, and especially no contact with the outside world. I didn’t even have a lawyer. So I was cut off from the world.”
He further described physical and psychological exhaustion: “Life is difficult in prison. »
