A court in Algeria has sentenced 80-year-old French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal to five years in prison, accusing him of undermining the country’s territorial integrity following controversial remarks about Morocco and Algeria’s borders.
Sansal was arrested in November after arriving in Algiers from Paris. His detention followed an interview with a far-right French media outlet in which he claimed that, during the colonial era, France had allocated too much land to Algeria and not enough to Morocco. He also suggested that the disputed territory of Western Sahara was historically Moroccan.
The author’s imprisonment has drawn widespread condemnation from intellectuals and political leaders, including Nigerian Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka and French President Emmanuel Macron.
“Boualem Sansal’s arbitrary detention, especially given his fragile health, remains one of the key issues that must be addressed before relations between our countries can fully normalize,” Macron said in February.
Sansal’s supporters argue that he has become entangled in an ongoing diplomatic dispute between France and Algeria. A committee backing him in France stated, “He has unwillingly become a pawn in the strained relations between Paris and Algiers.”
Tensions between Algeria and France have worsened in recent years, particularly after France endorsed Morocco’s claim to Western Sahara, a region where Algeria supports the independence-seeking Polisario Front. In response, Algeria withdrew its ambassador from Paris. The rift deepened further after Algeria severed diplomatic ties with Morocco in 2021.
Following the court ruling, Sansal’s lawyer appealed to Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune to grant clemency on humanitarian grounds.