Rabat –An Algerian court upheld today the five-year prison sentence against historian and novelist Boualem Sansal.This comes as Sansal has lost an appeal to be released on compassionate grounds.
Police arrested Sansal in November 2024, after he gave an interview to a French media company. In this interview, he said that France unfairly ceded Moroccan territory to Algeria during the colonial era.
Boualem Sansal is a well-known writer who has worked for a long time in Algeria. He has written a number of books which have been well received and won French literary awards.
Initially, an Algerian court sentenced him to a 5-years in prison and a $3,500 fine on March 27.
Sansal led an appeal and was acquitted after consistent calls by the French government. This is despite his being gravely ill with serious health conditions and cancer.
In January, French President Emmanuel Macron condemned Algeria for its decision to detain the author and called the writer’s imprisonment a “disgrace.”
“Algeria dishonours itself by preventing a gravely ill man from receiving proper care,” Macron stated as he condemned Algeria’s actions.
The French Prime Minister had hoped that the appeal would be carried out and that Sansal would be released, stating, “France rejects the appeal court’s decision to impose a prison sentence on our compatriot Boualem Sansal, which maintains the sentence handed down by the lower court.”
French authorities also urged the Algerian authorities to show empathy and find a swift, humanitarian, and dignified solution to the conflict. But this was very unlikely since Algeria is run by a regime responsible for countless human rights abuses.
Critics view Algeria’s acts, including Sansal’s arrest, as a geopolitical maneuver.
This is in response to deteriorating relations since France recognized Morocco’s sovereignty over its southern provinces in Western Sahara in July last year. Algeria has long been financially and militarily supporting Polisario, a separatist group that challenges Moroccan sovereignty and its territorial integrity.
The Algerian regime also hosts, finances, arms, and trains the separatist militias, causing violent attacks within Morocco.
There has been some hope that President Abdelmadjid Tebboune will offer an official presidential pardon to Sansal during Algeria’s Independence Day on Saturday.
But, at present, this remains unlikely, and this decision will have a big impact on the case.
