The fight for the release of Boualem Sansal continues. The French lawyer for the Franco-Algerian writer, detained in Algeria since mid-November for involvement in state security, announced Tuesday, March 11 at a press conference in Paris that he intended to seize the UN to denounce an “arbitrary detention”.
“Since detention is arbitrary, we will grasp the organs of the UN, of the High Commission for Human Rights, responsible for assessing the arbitrary nature of detention,” said François Zimeray. “I have shown great weighting and moderation so that it does not turn against Boualem Sansal, and I was wrong to play the appeasement, because it is clear that almost four months after his arrest, I still have not obtained an answer to my two visa requests,” he continued.
“Boualem Sansal’s defense is impossible”
To achieve this, the lawyer’s plan is well put together. “We will grasp these complaints against Algeria the United Nations against Algeria, and we plan to do so for all the major multilateral bodies of which Algeria is a part”, continued the lawyer, quoting “the African Union” and “the African Commission for Human Rights”, as well as “the Article 104 procedure of UNESCO too, wherever possible”.
“These are very technical institutions and, because they are very technical, their decisions are respected,” said the Council. “They have no imperative strength,” he noticed, but “they have a very large moral force”.
François Zimeray had already mentioned this possibility three months earlier, without the after the file evolved, Boualem Sansal remaining incarcerated without the possibility of seeing his lawyer. The author’s defense “is impossible today. And when a defense is impossible […] There cannot be a fair trial. And if there is no fair trial, detention is arbitrary, “insisted his council.
Several weeks without any news
“His continued detention and deprivation of access to the outside is not only a violation of the rights of the defense, but it is also a violation of what is called Mandela standards, that is to say the minimum rules that the international community recognizes as the minimum standard of all prisoners in the world”, according to Me Zimeray.
Boualem Sansal has become a subject of tension between France and Algeria, whose relations have deteriorated strongly with the recognition by France of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara in July 2024.
Algerian president Abdelmadjid Tebboune said in February that justice was following his normal course. “It is taken care of by doctors and will be judged in the trial time allocated,” he explained to the French daily Opinion. “Boualem Sansal is clearly the hostage of this degraded relationship, of this relationship in fire between France and Algeria,” said François Zimeray.
Asked about his 80 -year -old client’s health, he said he had not heard for a fortnight. “The detention of an elderly and sick man is at the very least abusive,” he deplored. “What is the degree of evolution of his cancer? […] It presupposes a very sensitive, very attentive follow-up, even interventions, since he had to have radiotherapy, “he questioned himself.” Regarding his psychological health, we went from a situation in which he supported his detention with great courage and combat in the first weeks, the first months, a feeling of morale that is lost and depression “, he reported.