Boualem Sansal.Image: AP
The news broke this Tuesday: the Franco-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, arrested on November 16 in Algiers, is being prosecuted for endangering the security of the Algerian state. A serious accusation which makes him face life imprisonment.
26.11.2024, 17:5327.11.2024, 05:07
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The Algerian public prosecutor has decided to prosecute Boualem Sansal under article 87 bis of the penal code, we learned late Tuesday afternoon in a press release from the accused’s French lawyer, François. Zimeray. This article of law, which punishes terrorism and subversion, covers a set of serious charges. The Franco-Algerian writer is accused of having “undermined the integrity of the national territory”.
Here is the press release from Me François Zimeray sent to the press:
“Mr Boualem Sansal, who went to Algiers in confidence, is today placed in detention under article 87 bis of the Algerian penal code which punishes all attacks on state security. The deprivation of liberty of an 80-year-old writer because of his writings is a serious act. Whatever the wounds invoked and the sensitivities offended, they are inseparable from the very idea of freedom, dearly won in Algeria; There is a clear disproportion here, the extent of which the authors probably did not appreciate. This is what I will argue, with my Algerian colleagues, in the Algerian judicial framework. If there must be an investigation, this in no way justifies the extension of the detention of Boualem Sansal.
Me François Zimeray
What article 87 bis of the Algerian penal code says:
“Any act aimed at state security, territorial integrity, stability and the normal functioning of institutions through any action aimed at:
- sow fear among the population and create a climate of insecurity, by morally or physically harming people or endangering their lives, their freedom or their security, or by damaging their property;
- obstruct traffic or freedom of movement on the roads and occupy public places with crowds;
- attack the symbols of the Nation and the Republic and desecrate graves;
- harm means of communication and transport, public and private property, take possession of them or occupy them unduly;
- harm the environment or introduce into the atmosphere, on the ground, in the subsoil or in the waters, including those of the territorial sea, a substance likely to endanger the health of humans or animals or the natural environment;
- obstruct the action of public authorities or the free exercise of religion and public freedoms as well as the operation of establishments contributing to public service;
- obstruct the functioning of public institutions or harm the life or property of their agents, or obstruct the application of laws and regulations.”
Perpetuity incurred
According to The Worldthe 75-year-old writer is accused of “attacking the integrity of the national territory”. He was taken into custody. The proceedings concerning him could be linked to recent statements to a French media outlet, in which he allegedly questioned the drawing of the Algerian borders with Morocco.
The arrest of Boualem Sansal and now the proceedings against him are part of extremely tense relations between France and Algeria. Algiers may want to make France pay for its recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara. Algeria this year commemorated the 70th anniversary of the independence insurrection of November 1, 1954, marking the start of the Algerian War, which ended in 1962, but whose effects, as we see, are still being felt. feel.
Naturalized French this year, Boualem Sansal is known for his strong criticism of the Algerian regime and his denunciation of Islamism. He faces life imprisonment in Algeria.
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