Arrested in Algeria, the writer Boualem Sansal should be heard by the country’s justice system this November 25. No one has heard from the writer, who was apparently arrested in mid-November when he got off the plane, when he was arriving from France. His publisher, Gallimard, expressed his deep concern, calling for his immediate release.
Boualem Sansal was born in Algeria and obtained French nationality just a few months ago. Teacher, business manager, senior civil servant, before being sacked because he was too critical of the Algerian government, his first novel, The Oath of the Barbarians, describes the rise of fundamentalism in Algeria. In 2084: the end of the worldhe imagines Islamism in power and denounces the threat it poses to democracy.
The trigger would be recent controversial comments in a French far-right media outlet. which called into question the borders of Algeriaa red line for power in Algiers. But the writer has been in the sights of the authorities for a long time because of his systematic criticism of power. “Algeria is a dictatorship of Islamism, a terrible fundamentalism,” he declared on Arte last January. His arrest also comes in the midst of a diplomatic crisis between France and Algeria over Western Sahara.
The French political class, schematically from the Socialist Party to the far right, supports the writer. Emmanuel Macron says he is very concerned. Former Prime Minister Édouard Philippe is worried about his disappearance. Marine Le Pen asks the French government to act for her release. With the exception of the PS, the voices of the left are not expressed. Several writers are calling for the immediate release of Boualem Sansal, including Kamel Daoud, author of the latest Goncourt, himself Franco-Algerian.
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