Writer Boualem Sansal held in Algeria on charges of ‘undermining integrity of national territory’ – Technologist

There has already been a hero from the war of liberation, journalists, politicians, activists, and many lesser-knowns. And now a writer. For several years now, the repression in Algeria has spared no one, nor tolerated any dissonant thought, especially when the regime feels under attack. On Tuesday, November 26, Le Monde learned from an Algerian judicial source that 80-year-old French-Algerian author Boualem Sansal has been in pre-trial detention since November 21 – five days after his arrest on arrival at Algiers airport – on charges of “undermining the integrity of national territory.”

This charge, considered an act of “terrorism” under article 87 bis of the Algerian penal code, and confirmed by the writer’s lawyer François Zimeray, carries a penalty of life imprisonment, or even the death penalty – although no execution has been carried out since 1993. Placed under a detention order by the Algiers court’s state security prosecutor, he has since been transferred to Mustapha-Pacha hospital. He is doing better there, according to a judicial source, and has appealed against his detention.

The severity of the charge has provoked numerous reactions, which were summed up by Zimeray: “The deprivation of liberty of an 80-year-old writer because of his writings is a serious act.”

‘Immediate release’

The literary world, starting with Sansal’s French publisher Gallimard, immediately expressed its astonishment. Several Nobel Prize winners, including Jean-Marie Le Clézio, Orhan Pamuk and Annie Ernaux, and world-renowned writers such as Salman Rushdie and Roberto Saviano, demanded the French-Algerian author’s “immediate release.” Member of the Académie Française Jean-Christophe Rufin announced that he had proposed an “emergency vote” to elect Boualem Sansal to the institution.

Among French politicians, the right and extreme right were the quickest to react. “The defense of freedom has no political color. The protection of a fellow citizen, arbitrarily detained for fallacious reasons, must make the entire political class react,” insisted David Lisnard (Les Républicains, LR), on X. “France must urgently make its voice heard with firmness. Freedom for Boualem Sansal.”

Questioned at the Assemblée Nationale on Tuesday about the possibility of sanctioning Algerian leaders in this affair, Minister for French Nationals Abroad Sophie Primas asked for “discretion” on the matter, insisting that “the services of the state are fully mobilized to follow the situation of our compatriot.” On November 21, President Emmanuel Macron said he was “very concerned by the disappearance” of Sansal, expressing his “unwavering commitment to the freedom of a great writer and intellectual.”

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