The Boualem Sansal affair was mentioned for the first time by an Algerian official. Brahim Boughali, president of the National People's Assembly (APN), and third person in the protocol order of the State, denounced on Sunday, December 1, the “interference” of the European Parliament in the internal affairs of Algeria.
Franco-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal was arrested on November 16 at Algiers airport. He is placed under arrest warrant and charged with endangering state security and the integrity of the national territory for having maintained at the beginning of October in an interview with a far-right French media outlet, that part of Western Algeria historically belongs to Morocco.
Since then, French far-right circles, to which he is close, have led a sometimes virulent campaign to obtain his release.
The Algerian Parliament reacts to the Boualem Sansal affair
The affair was notably debated on Wednesday November 27 in the European Parliament and certain MEPs, such as Sarah Knafo and Marion Maréchal le Pen, took the opportunity to vehemently attack Algeria.
Chairing a meeting of the office of the lower house of Parliament on Sunday, Brahim Boughali denounced “the accession of the European Parliament and certain French media and political circles in an attempt to interfere in the internal affairs of Algeria“, we read in a report posted by the APN on social networks.
“This is a blatant attempt to distract from real violations of human rights and international law“added Boughali, referring to the situation in the Middle East, in particular the war that Israel has been waging against Gaza for more than a year.
While wondering “what credit remains to these relays concerning the separation of powers and the independence of justice“, the president of the APN praised the Algerian justice which”ensures the protection of rights and freedoms“and assured that the law will apply to anyone who takes the liberty”to attack the security and stability of Algeria“.
Algeria confirmed the arrest of Boualem Sansal through a dispatch from the official APS agency broadcast on November 22. The government has still not commented on this matter.
