The silence of French authorities on the evening of Friday, July 4, after the announcement of pardons granted by Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune appeared to confirm suspicions: Boualem Sansal was not expected to be among the 6,500 detainees released for the 63rd anniversary of Algerian independence, celebrated on July 5. The Franco-Algerian writer, sentenced on Tuesday to five years in prison and a 500,000 dinar fine (€3,300) by the Algiers Court of Appeal, remained held at Koléa prison, where he had been incarcerated since his arrest in mid-November 2024 at the Algiers airport.
The pardon decree signed by the Algerian head of state did not provide a list of the individuals to benefit from the gesture, but instead set out categories of detainees who would be excluded. One such category was "authors of attacks or plots against the authority of the state, national unity, or territorial integrity," which appeared to rule out the writer, since Algerian justice had convicted him of endangering state security, territorial integrity, and the stability of institutions. The charges stemmed from remarks made by Sansal in a filmed interview with the far-right magazine Frontières, in which he spoke about the western region of Algeria belonging to Morocco.
You have 65.68% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.