L’Franco-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, aged 75, was reportedly arrested on Saturday, November 16, at Algiers airport upon his return from France, accompanied by a journalist from a French media outlet, according to our sources. His relatives have not heard from him since. No information has yet leaked from either the French or the Algerian side. The information is starting to circulate on social networks.
Arnaud Benedettieditor-in-chief of the Political and parliamentary review, published on : “We have no news from the writer Boualem Sansal, member of [la Revue]since his arrival in Algiers on November 16. According to several sources, he was arrested. If this information is confirmed, France must react. »
Boualem Sansal, a writer in the crosshairs of Algiers
Boualem Sansal's troubles with the authorities date back to the early 2000s. Director general at the Ministry of Industry, he was fired from his post in 2003 for his very critical positions towards the government. Positions that he made public with his first novel, The Oath of the Barbarians, published by Gallimard in 1999, and which won the Tropiques prize and the First Novel prize.
Despite the hostility of the authorities, Sansal continues to live in Boumerdès, an hour's drive east of Algiers. During the great earthquake of May 2003 which struck this region, he was reported missing. Buried under the rubble, he emerged unscathed. Miraculous. “Everyone thought I was dead, in Paris and in Algiers,” we […] Read more
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