The information reported by numerous sources since November 22 was finally confirmed by the Algerian press agency. In a dispatch oozing rage, in a style that clashes with press codes, the APS justified the arrest of Boualem Sansal by settling scores with France “macronito-zionist» and the supporters of the novelist and essayist described in turn as “anti-Algerian and incidentally pro-Zionist directory of Paris” or even “a lobby that never misses an opportunity to call into question Algerian sovereignty”.
Morocco’s territorial amputations: the reason for a hate-motivated arrest
The reasons for his arrest? The APS half-heartedly confirms that Sansal’s position during his interview on the set of Borders last October 3 on the subject of the Moroccan borders and the Eastern Sahara is indeed the cause of his arrest, as reported Le360 in a previous article.
Indeed, France chaired by Emmanuel Macron – personally singled out on several occasions by the APS – is castigated for having taken “the defense of a Holocaust denier, who calls into question the existence, independence, history, sovereignty and borders of Algeria!” And to drive the point home a little further by wondering if France “should not, rather, condemn Sansal for his attempt to deny the very existence of the Algerian Nation?».
Read also: Very strong emotion in France after the arrest of Boualem Sansal: the Algerian regime, “totally bankrupt”, singled out
To this dispatch whose style testifies to a total loss of control and uncontained rage, entitled “Sansal, the puppet of anti-Algerian revisionism,” Kamel Daoud decided to respond by launching a vibrant appeal in the columns of the magazine The Point.
The terrible portrait of the new Algeria
Addressing “to the defenders of freedom», the Goncourt prize – which is also targeted by this dispatch – expresses its “deep concern» faced with the tragic news of the arrest of his friend on November 16, which he considers “the reflection of an alarming reality in Algeria».
A country where, believes Kamel Daoud, “freedom of expression is nothing more than a memory in the face of repression, imprisonment and the surveillance of the entire society». Because in this open-air prison that Algeria has become, we risk «life imprisonment for a text, prison for a sigh of annoyance», he lists. In Algeria, he continues, painting a black picture of reality, “writers and intellectuals, publishers, booksellers, live in fear of reprisals, accusations of espionage and arbitrary arrests, trials and defamation and violent media attacks on their staff and loved ones“. And to qualify as “real editorial terrorism» this threat which weighs on the Algerian intelligentsia, taking as proof the police surveillance which weighed on the last Book Fair of Algiers where searches were carried out to remove books from sale.
Read also: Boualem Sansal: “When France colonized Algeria, the entire western part of Algeria was part of Morocco”
Boualem Sansal is the new victim of the new Algeria, as the regime in power likes to describe it, he who “looks like an old biblical prophet, smiling», Describes his friend. As such, “it provokes passions and friendships as much as the hatred of the submissive and the jealous“. And Kamel Daoud recalls about this man “free and amused by life“, who is having just as much fun “hatred of others», which Sansal writes but “do not kill or imprison anyone».
Kamel Daoud, who expressed his incomprehension in the columns of Figaro faced with his friend’s decision to go to Algeria at all costs, the reasons are finally explained. “His innocence in the face of the dictatorship made him forget the reality of the Terror in Algeria for several years. He neglected to look at the pack waiting for him, he returned to visit his country that Saturday. He paid dearly», he analyzes.
A call to the whole world for freedom
To this manknown for his courage and commitment”, and who “has always been a critical voice against oppression, injustice, Islamist totalitarianism», Kamel Daoud pays tribute. The writer calls for “don’t stay silent», car «Freedom, the right to culture and our lives, writers targeted by this terror, are at stake.».
At this “urgent call for international solidarity”, many voices joined together to demand the immediate release of Boualem Sansal and all writers imprisoned for their ideas. Among the first signatories, several Nobel Prize winners in literature, starting with Annie Ernaux, Jean-Marie Le Clezio, Orhan Pamuk and Wole Soyinka.
Read also: Writer Boualem Sansal imprisoned in Algeria: the hunt for the dissident intelligentsia is on
In the current version of the list, dated November 24, of great names in the world of letters, arts, culture and media: Salman Rushdie, Peter Sloterdijk, Andreï Kourkov, Roberto Saviano, Alaa el Aswany, Sylvain Tesson, Pascal Ory, Leïla Slimani, Élisabeth Badinter, Bernard-Henri Levy, Caroline Fourest, Boris Cyrulnik, Philippe Claudel, Jean-Baptiste Andrea, Jean-Christophe Rufin, Tahar Ben Jelloun, Abnousse Shalmani, Alain Finkielkraut, Catherine Cusset, Pascal Bruckner, Cynthia Fleury, Alain Mabanckou, Joann Sfar, Franz -Olivier Giesbert, Christophe Ono-dit-Biot, Peggy Sastre, François-Guillaume Lorrain, Émilie Frèche, Sophia Aram, Dominique Bona, Nora Bussigny, Jean-François Colosimo, Erri De Luca, Gabrielle Deydier, Jean Hatzfeld, Eva Illouz, Yascha Mounk, Pierre Nora, Michaël Prazan, Jean-Marie Rouart, Ayyam Sureau, Philippe Val and Valérie Zenatti.
The global pressure to bring the liberticidal regime so as not to stifle the voice of a 75-year-old writer will increase. The regime of the hateful chibanis will eventually comply.
