Four months after being sentenced to five years in prison, Algerian President Abdelmaid Tebboune on Wednesday pardoned Boualem Sansal, an 81-year-old French-Algerian writer with cancer. The author of the most translated and read novel in French was put on trial in Algiers in March last year for “attacking the integrity of the nation” after declaring to a French magazine that parts of Algerian territory were part of Morocco. Sansal has remained in custody since his arrest on November 16 last year, following a process marked by secrecy and non-communication, pending the announcement of a presidential pardon granted at the request of German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
“The President of the Republic responded favorably to this request (of the German side, presented on Monday), which he considered important given its humanitarian nature,” said a statement on the account of the Algerian presidential social network Facebook. Germany will be responsible for the transfer and treatment of Sansar, who was also charged with “publications against the security and stability of the country.”
Known for his critical opinions on Islamic politics and corruption in the Algerian government, he won the Academy Award for Novel in France and the Booksellers Association Peace Prize in Germany. his first work, barbarian oath ” (1999), which won the first prize for full-length feature (Premier Romant) and the Tropics award (Tropique).
French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said he was “relieved” by the Algerian president’s decision to pardon the convicted writer amid heightened tensions between the two countries. In October last year, the Algiers government withdrew its ambassador from Paris after Algeria’s former colonial power, France, recognized Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara, where Algeria maintains independence through self-determination.
In a speech in Parliament quoted by Effe, Lecorne expressed the hope that the writer could be “reunited with his family as soon as possible” this Wednesday. Similarly, he said, “We are deeply grateful to all those who contributed to this release as a result of their respectful and calm approach.”
President Emmanuel Macron, French government officials, and many French political and cultural figures have repeatedly called on the Algerian authorities to release Sansar, who will become a naturalized French citizen in 2024. Many of them asked President Tebboune to pardon them on July 5, Independence Day, citing their age and health, but this was not done at the time. Presidential pardons were granted to more than 6,500 prisoners this holiday.
The case, which began against Sansal and ended with a five-year prison sentence, stemmed from his arrest in Algiers after the publication of an interview he gave to far-right French media in which he said Paris had ceded Moroccan territory to Algeria during the colonial period, a statement considered by Algiers to be an affront to national sovereignty. Lawyers say Sansal may have been used as a “hostage” and “scapegoat” in the crossfire of a diplomatic dispute between Algiers and Paris over the former Spanish colony of Western Sahara.
During the trial, the author always denied that he had any intention of offending the Algerian state and said his comments were merely an expression of his personal opinion. Arrest and prosecution of criminals german village Either 2084: End of the worldsparking a wave of widespread solidarity in support of him. Four Nobel laureates – Annie Ernaux, Jean-Marie Gustave Le Crezio, Orhan Pamuk and Wole Soyinka – and a long list of writers from around the world, including Salman Rushdie, Peter Sloterzik, Andrei Kurkov, Roberto Saviano and Leila Slimani, signed a manifesto calling for his release. Camel Daoud, a French-Algerian author and winner of the Prix Goncourt, was responsible for the main text. On November 4, the Prix Goncourt jury paid tribute to the imprisoned novelist by wearing badges with the motto “I am Saint Salle.”
harassment campaign
Mr. Sansal went from being a senior official in Algeria’s industry ministry to a taboo intellectual after publishing his first novel denouncing corruption and religious fanaticism 26 years ago. Since then, he has suffered a campaign of harassment and lost his public office along with his family.
German mediation finally took effect with Sansar’s release. In October 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, President Tebboune, now 79 years old, was admitted to a German hospital. The president quarantined himself after several Cabinet members contracted the coronavirus. In December of the same year, he appeared in public again, looking visibly thinner and weaker, in a televised message to the nation.
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