“The motivations of such Algerian mandates could only be political,” said the writer’s lawyer Jacqueline Laffont on Tuesday with the Radio France agency.
Published the 06/05/20254:32 Reading time: 2min
-The Franco-Algerian writer Kamel Daoud, Prix Goncourt 2024 for his book Houris (Gallimard), is targeted by two international arrest warrants issued by the Algerian justice, learned Tuesday, May 6, the radio agency France from its lawyer, Jacqueline Laffont, confirming information from the weekly The point.
“Kamel Daoud has just been informed, without further details, that two arrest warrants would have been issued against him by Algerian justice”writes Jacqueline Laffont on Radio France. The first of these arrest warrants was issued in March, the second at the start of May. “The motivations of such Algerian mandates could only be political and register in a set of procedures carried out to silence a writer whose last novel evokes the massacres of the dark decade in Algeria”adds the lawyer, who ensures that a “Preemptive request” will be deposited “without delay” With the Interpol file control commission to contest the dissemination of these arrest warrants.
Kamel Daoud is targeted by legal proceedings in Algeria and France linked to his novel. In Algeria, Saâda Arbane, a survivor of the civil war, accuses him of having used his personal history to create the heroine dawn, fileing two complaints for violation of medical confidentiality, infringement of privacy and defamation of the victims of terrorism. The novel is prohibited in Algeria, and Kamel Daoud is accused of betraying his country. In France, Saâda Arbane pursues Kamel Daoud and his publisher Gallimard for infringement of private life and defamation after words in Le Figaro.
Kamel Daoud denounces a campaign orchestrated by the Algerian regime. The case, combining artistic freedom and privacy, is part of a climate of Algeria-France tensions and restrictions on the memory of the dark decade.
