Call for release of Algerian writer Boualem Sansal

French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal was arrested in Algiers on November 16, the Algerian News Agency confirmed in a strongly worded report. Nobel Prize laureate Salman Rushdie and Kamal Daoud, winner of the Goncourt Prize, have called for Sansar's release.

Antoine Menusier/watson.ch/fr

Boualem Sansal, a 75-year-old French-Algerian writer, was arrested in Algiers on November 16, the Algerian Press Agency, a news agency that reports to the Algerian Information Ministry, confirmed in a strongly worded article on Friday night. The agency did not mention disappearances but arrests.

“The arrest of Boualem Sansal, a pseudo-intellectual admired by the French far right, has sparked outrage among professionals,” the agency wrote on its website. She added: “Some French The comical excitement among political and intellectual circles over the case of Boualem Sansal is further evidence of the existence of a current of hatred against Algeria.”

“Macronito Zionist France”

The Algerian Press Service continued, “Macronito-Zionist France is outraged by Sansal’s arrest and still has not explained to the world whether France has the power to arrest Benjamin Netanyahu if he shows up at Charles de Gaulle Airport Required sovereignty.” ICC issues arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister.

In the following report on Algerian state television about the arrest of Bouarem Sansar, the tone is reminiscent of the tone used by Russian television when talking about the West when it comes to the war in Ukraine:

The arrest may come against the backdrop of the conflict in Western Sahara: At the end of October, Paris recognized Morocco's sovereignty over the area between Morocco and Mauritania – much to the dismay of Algiers.

According to Le Monde, “in a recent interview with the French right-wing extremist outlet 'Frontières', Boulan Sansar adopted a Moroccan version of the kingdom, which was deprived of part of its territory by French colonial rule in the 19th century.” “What will Algeria look like in a few decades, after a terrible war of independence,” the French daily wrote in an editorial.

Kamal Daoud and the Nobel Laureate’s Appeal

Solidarity is growing in France and elsewhere for the Algerian writer, who also received French citizenship this year. The website “Le Point” states that the Nobel Prize winner in literature is mobilizing for Boualem Sansal. “Nobel Prize winners Anne Ernault, Jean-Marie Le Clézio, Orhan Pamuk and Wole Soyinka as well as Salman Rushdie, Peter Slough Tedek, Andrei Kurkov, Roberto Saviano, Giuliano Darnpoli and Ala El-Aswani join us in the call for solidarity for the Goncourt Prize recipients Kamal Daoud and demanded his immediate release.”

French-Algerian writer Kamel Daoud won the 2024 Prix Goncourt for his novel “Houris”, which depicts the horrors of the Algerian civil war in the 1990s, after the book was banned in Algeria. And the author was vilified by the regime. In an appeal published by Le Point, Daoud wrote:

“Everything is possible: one text message and a life sentence…”

With the arrest of Boualem Sansar, Algeria appears set for a showdown with France. What was the result?