Algeria deserves better than the arrest of Boualem Sansal – Libération

For the writer Nadir Dendoune, whatever the ideas of Boualem Sansal, defending him is a necessity, because justice cannot depend on our affinities and our detestations. What threatens Algeria is not a writer, it is the fear of contradiction.

So, you arrested Boualem Sansal. At 75, at the Algiers airport, as if he were a criminal on the run. For what ? Because he said some nonsense that you don't like?

Let's be clear: some of Boualem Sansal's ideas outrage me, such as his revival of the “great replacement” theory, an idea propagated by the far right. His open support for Netanyahu's Israeli government is intolerable. My cousins ​​in Algeria are up in arms, particularly in the face of his recent statements in the far-right French media Borders, where Sansal calls into question according to them “the existence, independence, history, sovereignty and borders of Algeria”. For them, this is clearly negationism. One of them told me: “Nadir, what he says about Algeria is like what Zemmour said about Pétain who allegedly “saved” French Jews. It’s a historic insult, an unbearable contempt.”

So yes, defending a guy like that is not pleasant. But it is a question of principle. I am against all the colo