Boualem Sansal sentenced to five years: repression of freedom of expression in Algeria

Following the decision by the Algiers Court of Appeal to sentence Boualem Sansal to five years in prison on the grounds that he was a ‘scapegoat for France and Morocco’, the French authorities have rejected any kind of negotiation or rapprochement with Algiers. Among France's premises is the failure to take into account the writer's state of health and the numerous requests for repatriation by Sansal's lawyers and family. 

Considered one of the most controversial cases in the crisis between France and Algeria, the arrest of French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal has closed any possibility of the two countries restoring their ties. 

Sansal, who is 80 years old, is currently suffering from cancer, which is why his new lawyer, Pierre Cornut-Gentil, arrived in Algiers last week to urge the Algerian authorities to file a new appeal. However, according to the family, it is hoped that Algeria will ultimately heed the calls for his release on the occasion of Algerian Independence Day on 5 July. 

Since he was detained in Algiers last November, the writer's life has been traumatic, according to his closest relatives. That day marked the beginning of a dispute between Algiers and Paris, which had been sparked by French President Emmanuel Macron's announcement that he recognised Morocco's autonomy plan for Western Sahara, proposed by King Mohammed VI of Morocco in 2007, as the most ‘serious, credible and realistic’ solution to the conflict. 

Sansal was tried on charges of ‘undermining national unity, insulting a statutory body, participating in practices that could harm the national economy and possessing videos and publications that threaten national security and stability’, offences stipulated in the Algerian Penal Code with penalties of up to seven years. 

Throughout this time, the French authorities have unsuccessfully urged Algeria to back down in the case. To date, multiple appeals have been lodged. The latest was a formal request for repatriation proposed by the French National Assembly on 6 May on the grounds of Algeria's failure to comply with its international human rights obligations. Macron even personally asked Abdelmadjid Tebboune, President of Algeria, for a humanitarian gesture. 

Leading figures in the country, such as French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin and French Prime Minister François Bayrou, have insisted on a pardon for the Franco-Algerian writer. The latter said of the court's decision that ‘what Boualem Sansal is going through is unbearable. Now, after the verdict, we can imagine a pardon for him, especially considering the health of our citizen.’ 

Along the same lines, Retailleau said he hoped he would be released and that contact could be maintained and a conclusion reached soon, adding that France would not cease in its efforts to secure his release. 

On the other hand, Algeria insists that Sansal's statements in the interview with the French media outlet Frontières, in which he defended the Moroccan position that part of the kingdom's territory had been isolated under French colonialism and annexed to Algeria, ‘unmasked the writer’. In fact, Abdelmadjid Tebboune himself described him as a ‘fraudster and an emissary of France’.