In the midst of the Boualem Sansal affair, Albert Camus’ plea against the death penalty

Coincidence of the news: while the Franco-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal is being prosecuted in Algeria for endangering state security, letters from Albert Camus appear on Thursday pleading for Algerians sentenced to death by France. These letters are in a collection of political texts by the native philosopher of French Algeria, Current IVpublished by Editions Gallimard, and established among others by his daughter Catherine Camus.

Just before his accidental death in January 1960, Camus was working on the composition of this work. And he did not necessarily have to talk about Algeria, covered by Current IIIcompilation of Algerian chronicles published in 1958. Throughout this Current IV posthumous, volume of nearly 500 pages, we read « Against the death penalty (Tunisia, Algeria, Iran) » and « Additional information on the death penalty » which concern his native land. Because the writer, Nobel Prize winner in 1957, is often brought back to her, torn apart by the war of independence since the end of 1954. « She is quite present. Camus at the end of his life did not give up acting in Algeria. The fact that he is forbidden to speak, in one camp or the other, does not prevent him from doing so. »comments, interviewed by AFP, the historian Vincent Duclert who participated in this edition.

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« I lived in his neighborhood »

Boualem Sansal, 75, critic of Algerian power, has always admired Camus. « He’s an author that I adore. For me, it represents Algerian literature. Plus, the coincidence of life is that when I was a kid, I lived in his neighborhood. (…) I saw his mother. He was my first writer, the first one I read », he explained in 2010 to the daily Humanity.

Boualem Sansal’s lawyer announced Tuesday that his client, arrested in mid-November at Algiers airport, was « placed in detention under article 87 bis of the Algerian penal code which punishes all attacks on state security ». This article provides « the death penalty »sometimes pronounced by Algerian courts, but never applied since 1993.

The author of The Strangerin his time, was on the other hand faced with executions. In June 1956, the separatists Ahmed Zabana and Abdelkader Ferradj were the first guillotines of the Algerian war. Others would follow, including Frenchman Fernand Iveton in February 1957. In Current IV, In October 1957, Camus pleaded with the President of the Council Guy Mollet for « measures of generosity »namely to slow down death sentences.

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« Certainly cruel »

In December, he wrote to the president of the Paris Assize Court: « I am, by reasoned conviction, opposed to the death penalty in general ». He adds: « I am an opponent of the theses and actions of the FLN »the independence movement. And for him, the death sentences « would further compromise the hope of a solution ». In January 1959, he pleaded with the President of the Republic Charles de Gaulle on « three cases of death row prisoners » who can still be pardoned. He invokes « the circumstances which, in my opinion, would perhaps make a definitive punishment impolitic and certainly cruel ».

Camus’ positions on capital punishment have been debated. In September 2023, a Franco-American academic, Olivier Gloag, was making progress in the trial Forget Camus that the philosopher was selective: sometimes he presented himself as an abolitionist, sometimes he remained silent even though some had asked him to raise his voice when an execution was imminent. Did he intervene or not in favor of the communist Fernand Iveton? The question remains debated. According to Vincent Duclert, « Camus does not give up defending freedom in Algeria, that is to say the very utopian possibility that the war will end and Algerian society will be reconciled. ».