Boualem Sansal placed under arrest warrant by the anti-terrorism prosecution

Alger

Boualem Sansal was interviewed by the Algiers anti-terrorism prosecutor's office and placed under arrest warrant this Tuesday, November 26, according to his lawyer. The arrest of the Franco-Algerian writer was confirmed Friday by the official Algerian press agency, APS, which did not provide further details.

Boualem Sansal, “who had gone to Algiers in confidence, is today placed in detention under article 87 bis of the Algerian Penal Code which punishes all attacks on state security», indicated Me François Zimeray, his lawyer in France. “The deprivation of liberty of a writer because of his writings is a serious act”, “whatever the injuries invoked and the sensitivities offended”he observed.

According to El Moudjahid, official government media, Boualem Sansal will be prosecuted on several charges, including “attack on national integrity and unity and state institutions”. As such, the writer risks the sentence of life imprisonment.

“The Algerian Penal Code above all”

Several sources close to him reported that he was arrested on Saturday November 16 at Algiers airport. Since then, he has not given any news to his loved ones who are now worried about his health.

The author of Vivre – his latest science fiction novel released in 2024 – is also known for his critical positions towards Algerian power. Until this fall, he had never been worried by the authorities of his country. His arrest was allegedly motivated by the interview given to the far-right French media Borders. He takes up the Moroccan position according to which the country's territory was truncated under French colonization for the benefit of Algeria.

Also read
Arrest of Boualem Sansal: Emmanuel Macron facing the Algerian puzzle

“The Algerian Penal Code is above allrecalled a documentary broadcast Sunday evening by national television entitled “Servants of Western and Moroccan agendas”. This is a state law that considers undermining its unity a crime and an act of terrorism. Boualem Sansal is only an 'agent' under the guise of a writer, whom morality and culture have not been able to educate.”

In Algeria, if public opinion quite unanimously condemns the comments made by Boualem Sansal, some Algerians openly admit on social networks that this does not deserve prison. A teacher asks this question on Facebook: “Is national sovereignty therefore so fragile as to be shaken by the declarations of a writer that any historian is able to refute?”

Algerian public opinion divided

Quite unanimously, Algerians also rebel against the mobilization of the media and the French political class to defend the writer. “Friends of Algeria are standing up to demand the release of Sansal. Add the fact that the alert was given by his 'friend' Xavier Driencourt, and you can conclude that with all this support, we risk having popular demonstrations in Algeria to demand that Boualem Sansal be kept in detention »quips editorialist Abed Charef.

“Boualem Sansal rehabilitates the colonial narrative and its historical untruths and does not appreciate the extent to which it is disrespectful to national sentiment. He also knows that his arrest will serve him and harm the image of Algeria abroad.commented on X the former minister and ex-ambassador Abdelaziz Rahabi.

Also read
“We must all be Boualem Sansal”: Richard Malka denounces the hypocrisy of part of the left regarding the fate of the Franco-Algerian writer

“Boualem Sansal was profoundly ungrateful to the country which had adopted his father, had educated him, trained him, including abroad and had offered him the lounges of the ministriesalso declared Soufiane Djilali, leader of the Jil Jadid party (New Generation, opposition) by qualifying: Despite this, we must not clutter our justice system with such individuals. History will discard it even more quickly than it was prefabricated by its godfathers.”

Among the political parties, the MSP (Islamists) attacked, through its president Abdelali Hassani Cherif, France which “leads a campaign against Algeria with multiple dimensions, including a cultural dimension, by encouraging figures such as the French-Zionist Boualem Sansal, Kamel Daoud (…) in their writings questioning the unity of the nation and its history”.