Franco-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal came out of the hospital recently to return to prison said the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot.
Incarcerated in Algeria since mid-November 2024, the Franco-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal has left the hospital recently but remains in prison, as indicated by the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot at the microphone of Sud-Radio CE Tuesday, January 28.
“Boualem Sansal left the hospital a few days ago and returned to detention in the prison where he is detained, around Algiers,” added the chief of French diplomacy, specifying that Paris was holding the Information from the writer’s wife and that the French consular visit request was not granted by the Algerian authorities.
At 75, how is Boualem Sansal?
Boualem Sansal, 75, is detained in Algeria for involvement in state security. A detention during which his state of health could potentially deteriorate, especially because of his age. Relatively limited communication from Algiers concerning his state of health can also lead to asking several questions about the latter.
In the viewfinder of Algiers, comments made by Boualem Sansal to the far -right media Boundaries. In an interview published on October 2, the writer defended the Moroccan position on the very sensitive subject of the border between Algeria and Morocco. Boualem Sansal believed in particular that when “France colonized Algeria, the whole western part of Algeria was part of Morocco: Tlemcen, Oran and even to Mascara […]. When France colonizes Algeria, it settles as a protectorate in Morocco and decides, like that, arbitrarily, to attach all the east of Morocco to Algeria, by drawing a border “.
Still according to him, “the Algerian regime, which is a military regime, [aurait] invented the polisario [le mouvement indépendantiste du Sahara occidental, ndlr.] To destabilize Morocco “. Words which are part of an already tense context, Paris having recognized on July 30 the” Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara “.
Algeria “dishonors a man seriously ill from treating himself”
Since the French head of state recognized the sovereignty of Morocco on this territory, the neutrality of Paris is no longer and relations with Algiers are delicate. The arrest of several Algerian influencers who have held hateful remarks towards France, in recent weeks, has only made the already existing tensions even more.
In early January, Emmanuel Macron called for the release of Boualem Sansal, judging that Algeria “dishoners a man seriously ill from being treated”. Algiers had described his words as “shameless and unacceptable interference in an internal Algerian case”. Boualem Sansal always risks imprisonment with perpetuity, even the death penalty.