Boualem Sansal, a French-Algerian writer, has been given a five-year prison sentence in Algeria for allegedly undermining national unity.
After he questioned the boundaries that separate Algeria from its regional rival Morocco in an interview with the far-right French media outlet Frontieres, a court in Dar El Beida, close to Algiers, sentenced the author to “anti-terrorism” laws on Thursday.
Sansal argued in the interview that France had expanded Algeria’s borders during the colonial era to include areas that once belonged to Morocco in the interview that was published last October. He was detained when he arrived in Algiers the following month.
Algeria and France’s relationship sagged after Algeria’s position was changed last summer when France changed its mind to recognize Morocco’s authority over the disputed Western Sahara territory. This was made even worse when Algeria refused to return Algerians who were slated for deportation.
French President Emmanuel Macron made a Thursday appeal to Algeria’s authorities, calling on them to use “good sense and humanity” to “give him Sansal’s] back his freedom and allow him to be treated for the disease he is fighting”
The author’s cancer has been reported in French media.
tensions between France and Algeria
Sansal, the 2011 Peace Prize winner of the German Book Trade, has frequently visited Algeria and has had his books freely sold there. He has long criticized the country’s authorities.
According to Hociane Amine, a lawyer who was present in the courtroom, the author, who chose to defend himself, denied that the remarks violated laws or were intended to harm Algeria.
He obviously has the right to file an appeal. The president has the right to grant him a pardon because it serves as a political card in the current political crisis with France, Amine said.
Sansal, who was residing in France, has previously been criticized by Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who described him as an “imposter.”
However, some observers have suggested that the author might receive a presidential pardon during upcoming Muslim or national holidays.
Sansal’s five-year sentence, which was requested by the prosecution, is half as severe as it is recommended for those accused of violating Algeria’s controversial “anti-terrorism” law, which was put in place after a nation-wide uprising last ten years.
Algerian human rights activists claim that anti-government voices have long been suppressed by the laws.
Source: Aljazeera
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