Rabat – Boualem Sansal was welcomed at the Élysée on Tuesday, where President Emmanuel Macron met the 81-year-old writer shortly after his arrival from Berlin.
In a statement issued after the meeting, the Élysée said Macron “deeply welcomes the liberation” of a “great writer whose dignity, moral strength, and courage have been exemplary.”
Sansal and his wife, Naziha, were hosted at the presidential palace soon after touching down in France.
The presidency described his release as “a moment of emotion and joy,” noting that it had been achieved through a diplomatic approach “grounded in respect, calm, and firmness.”
Macron later traveled to Berlin, where he thanked German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier for the role played by German authorities in securing Sansal’s release. The author is “fortunately doing well,” Macron told reporters during his visit.
The international Support Committee for Sansal confirmed earlier in the day that their “friend and compatriot” had returned safely to France.
Sansal spent a year imprisoned in Algeria for public statements deemed unacceptable by the authorities, including comments made in October 2025 to the far-right French outlet Frontières, where he claimed that Algeria had inherited regions that, according to him, previously belonged to Morocco before the French colonial era.
His arrest in November 2024, upon arrival at Algiers airport, marked a new low in already strained relations between France and Algeria. The author had long been a thorn in the side of the Algerian regime.
Following his release last Wednesday, granted by Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune after a request from German authorities, Sansal was transferred to Berlin for medical treatment and housed at the French ambassador’s residence.
His return to France was long-awaited by his supporters who campaigned for months for his liberation.
In a message released on Tuesday, the International Support Committee conveyed “a fraternal salute” to Sansal and to his family, who “endured with dignity and courage an unjust and painful ordeal.”
The committee added that “it will be up to the writer to choose the moment and the formats in which he wishes to speak,” noting that Sansal had recently told fellow Algerian author and Prix Goncourt laureate Kamel Daoud that he hoped relations between France and Algeria would “evolve.”
The committee also renewed its call for the “immediate release” of French sports journalist Christophe Gleizes, who remains detained in Algeria and is due to appear in an appeal hearing in early December on charges including “advocacy of terrorism.”
The Élysée echoed this appeal, stating, “We are also thinking of our compatriot Christophe Gleizes, whose liberation we fervently wish for. We are working on it.”
In a column published Monday, Gleizes’ family expressed hope that the pardon granted to Boualem Sansal might signal a broader easing of tensions between the two countries, an opening that could lead, they said, to a favorable outcome for the detained journalist.
