His relatives have not heard from him for a week. The Franco-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal was arrested at Algiers airport, coming from France, on Saturday November 16, according to several French media. Emmanuel Macron expressed his concern on Thursday. Franceinfo summarizes what we know about this affair.
He was arrested on Saturday at Algiers airport
Arnaud Benedetti, editor-in-chief of The Political and Parliamentary Reviewin which Boualem Sansal collaborates, gave the alert on X Thursday morning: “We have had no news from the writer (…) since his arrival in Algiers on 16/11. According to several sources, he was arrested.” A few minutes later, the magazine Marianne a confirmed the arrest at the airport of the Algerian capital, specifying that the author of 2084: the end of the world didn't have “no more news to his loved ones since his arrival in Algiers last Saturday November 16”.
According to The Worldthe 75-year-old writer “would have been arrested by members of the general directorate of Algerian internal security and should be presented shortly before the public prosecutor”. The Algerian authorities have not yet confirmed the information.
“We thought that his cell phone had been confiscated by the authorities upon his arrival at Algiers airport. But he did not respond to his emails, his WhatsApp, or his landline at home,” Xavier Driencourt, former French ambassador to Algiers, declared to the daily newspaper. He says he had dinner with his friend the day before he left for his native country. “He returned home on an Air France flight the next day. He wasn't worried.”
Emmanuel Macron says he is “very concerned”
The French president said Thursday evening “very concerned about the disappearance” of the Franco-Algerian writer who, AFP recalls, obtained French nationality this year. “State services are mobilized to clarify his situation”specifies the entourage of the Head of State, according to whom “the President of the Republic expresses his unwavering attachment to the freedom of a great writer and intellectual”.
Other French politicians reacted in the same direction. “All means of pressure on Algeria must be activated to obtain the release of our compatriot, the great writer Boualem Sansal”argued Laurent Wauquiez, the leader of the LR deputies. “He embodies everything we cherish: the call to reason, freedom and humanism against censorship, corruption and Islamism”reacted former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe (Horizons), by calling for “French and European authorities to obtain precise information and ensure that he can move freely and return to France whenever he wishes.”
The Human Rights League and the writer's French publisher, Gallimard, also expressed their concern. For the International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism (Licra), it is “one of the moral consciences of our time which is threatened”while specifying that“we also know that his wife, seriously ill, is currently hospitalized in France”.
The reasons for the arrest are currently unknown.
The reasons for this arrest remain unclear. According to The World and Radio France Internationale, it could be linked to comments he made at the beginning of October in an interview with the far-right French media Bordersof which he is a member of the editorial board. “When France colonized Algeria, the entire western part of Algeria was part of Morocco”he said, regarding the borders between the two countries. A highly sensitive issue for Algiers.
Still according to RFI, the winner of the Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française in 2015 could be prosecuted for “undermining national unity and the territorial integrity of the country” and “inciting the division of the country”. He would then face a prison sentence.
He was in the crosshairs of the Algerian authorities
“We know what Boualem Sansal’s positions are against the Algerian regime. He has a very critical view of this regime”recalls Arnaud Benedetti to RFI. Boualem Sansal was in fact monitored by the Algerian authorities. He also counted “settle in France”explains in The World Xavier Driencourt. “He found that Algeria was becoming unbreathable. I even started looking for a house for him.”
A slayer of Islamism, he found success from the start with The Barbarian Oatha novel recounting the rise of fundamentalists who contributed to plunging his country into a civil war that left at least 200,000 dead between 1992 and 2002, recalls AFP.
His books, published in France, are sold freely in Algeria. But the author is controversial there, particularly since a visit in 2011 to the Jerusalem Book Fair. In 2003, after the publication of his book Tell me heavenhe had been dismissed from his position as director general at the Ministry of Industry. In this novel, he painted a critical portrait of postcolonial Algeria. “Being a writer in Algeria today is very expensive. Indeed, the current regime does not appreciate this profession and the Islamists are in full expansion”explains Karim Daoud, Goncourt 2025 prize and close to Boualem Sansal, in an article published in Le Figaro THURSDAY.
A tense context between France and Algeria
These events take place in a very difficult diplomatic context between France and Algeria. The country led by Abdelmadjid Tebboune is furiouswhile Emmanuel Macron decided to support the Moroccan autonomy plan for the disputed territory of Western Sahara at the end of July. This former Spanish colony is de facto controlled mainly by Morocco, but it is claimed by the Sahrawi separatists of the Polisario Front, supported by Algiers.
On RFI, Arnaud Benedetti said he feared that “the Algerian regime is making this arrest a political symbol and a symbol of the hardening of its relations with France”. Xavier Driencourt shares this sentiment: Algiers wants “test France”he says in The World.
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