Lawyer Thibault de Montbrial was the guest of the Grand Rendez-vous Europe 1/ CNews/ Les Echos. At the microphone of Pierre de Vilno, he returned to the arrest of the Franco-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal in Algeria this week. An arrest which proves the true nature of Algiers, believes the lawyer who calls for “opening our eyes” and entering into “a true path of normalization” with Algeria.
The arrest was finally confirmed via the Algerian press. Boualem Sansal, a 75-year-old Franco-Algerian writer, was arrested on November 16 upon his arrival in Algeria. An announcement which particularly shocked in France, provoking multiple reactions. Algerian justice accuses the writer in particular of inciting “the division of the country”. Article 87 of the Algerian code could be applied against the author, with a prison sentence of up to life in prison.
“What is criticized against Boualem Sansal is that he is part, with other Algerians who have chosen to live in France, but while being lucid about their regime, of talking about the excesses of the Algerian regime, the dangers of “Islamism and the excesses of an authoritarian regime”, judge on the set of the Grand Rendez-vous, Thibault de Montbrial.
Rebuilding new relationships
“I think this is the opportunity now to open the eyes of those who have not yet opened them and to enter into a relationship which is not a relationship of force, which is a relationship of true normalization with Algeria”, he now calls, believing that it is necessary in particular to rework the Evian agreements of 1968, which facilitate the entry of Algerian nationals onto French soil.
“France has knelt before Algeria. (…) And the truth and reconciliation operation initiated by Emmanuel Macron has until now only led to humiliation,” concludes the lawyer , which now calls for “rebuilding adult, post-war relationships”.
Thibault de Montbrial at the Grand Rendez-vous:
