An Algerian appeals court confirmed the five-year prison sentence against French-Algerian author Boualem Sansal, maintaining his conviction for “undermining national unity,” according to Politico.
The 80-year-old novelist, imprisoned since his arrest upon arriving in Algiers last November, now faces continued incarceration despite international appeals for his release. French Prime Minister François Bayrou declared the situation “unbearable for all the French and for this government,” reflecting Paris’s deepening concern over the case.
Sansal’s detention ignited widespread condemnation from literary circles and human rights organisations, occurring against a backdrop of severely strained Franco-Algerian relations. Tensions escalated notably after France shifted its longstanding position to support Morocco’s sovereignty claim over the disputed Western Sahara territory, a move that angered Algeria.
The acclaimed author of “2084: The End of the World” battled prostate cancer during his imprisonment, requiring periodic hospital treatment. His supporters hope Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune may grant a presidential pardon on Saturday, 5 July, coinciding with Algeria’s Independence Day, a traditional occasion for amnesties.
French President Emmanuel Macron has repeatedly demanded Sansal’s freedom, asserting in January that Algeria had “dishonoured itself” through the writer’s imprisonment. Sansal’s 2015 recipient of France’s prestigious Grand Prix du Roman has faced Algerian censorship for years, though he previously travelled freely between Paris and Algiers.
His current conviction stems from remarks questioning Algeria’s territorial borders during a French media interview, where he suggested colonial-era adjustments incorporated historically Moroccan lands.
The Sansal ruling follows closely upon Algeria’s seven-year prison sentence for French sports journalist Christophe Gleizes, convicted on Sunday of “glorifying terrorism” and possessing “propaganda publications harmful to national interests.”
Gleizes, arrested in May 2024 while reporting on football club Jeunesse Sportive de Kabylie, spent thirteen months under judicial supervision before receiving what Reporters Without Borders director Thibaut Bruttin termed a “nonsensical” punishment for routine journalism.
These cases illuminate Algeria’s tightening restrictions on expression. Rights groups document hundreds of journalists, activists, and lawyers detained in recent years under broadly applied anti-terrorism laws. Sansal’s imprisonment particularly symbolises the vulnerability of dual nationals amid geopolitical friction.
