The Nobel Prize winners for literature Annie Ernaux, Jean-Marie Le Clézio, Orhan Pamuk and Wole Soyinka, as well as several writers including Salman Rushdie and Roberto Saviano, called for the “immediate release” of the Franco-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, in a column published Saturday on the website of the weekly Point.
An initiative launched by Kamel Daoud
The call was initiated by Algerian writer Kamel Daoud, winner of the 2024 Prix Goncourt, and was signed by many internationally renowned authors. “Let us demand the immediate release of Boualem Sansal and all writers imprisoned for their ideas,” they wrote in this text initiated by his compatriot Kamel Daoud, Prix Goncourt 2024 and columnist at Le Point. “We cannot remain silent. Freedom, the right to culture and our lives, writers targeted by this terror, are at stake,” they also added.
Boualem Sansal, aged 75, was arrested on November 16 at Algiers airport, upon his return from France, according to several media. The arrest was confirmed Friday by the Algerian government news agency APS, although the precise date of the incident was not specified.
Sansal's fight against fundamentalism and authoritarianism
The writer, known for his fight against religious fundamentalism and authoritarianism, is an important figure in the literary and political world. His arrest aroused concern in these circles. His publisher, Gallimard, expressed his “very serious concern” and called for his “immediate release”.
The entourage of French President Emmanuel Macron also expressed their concern, stressing that “state services are mobilized to clarify his situation”. According to The WorldSansal's arrest could be linked to controversial statements in which he allegedly supported the Moroccan position regarding the Western Sahara border issue.
Tense diplomatic context between France and Algeria
According to Le Monde, the Algerian authorities may have taken badly his statements to the French media Frontières, reputed to be far-right, which take up the Moroccan position according to which the country's territory was truncated under French colonization for the benefit of Algeria. The official Algerian press agency APS criticized France on Friday for taking “the defense of a Holocaust denier who calls into question the existence, independence, history, sovereignty and borders of Algeria.” calling Boualem Sansal a “useful puppet”.
These events take place in a tense diplomatic context between France and Algeria, after Paris' support for the Moroccan autonomy plan for the disputed territory of Western Sahara at the end of July.
