The prosecution requested this Tuesday a ten-year prison sentence against the French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, during a hearing before the Algiers Court of Appeals.
“The attorney general is demanding 10 years in prison and a fine of one million dinars,” declared the representative of the Public Prosecutor’s Office. The verdict will be delivered on July 1.
Mr. Sansal had been sentenced on March 27 to five years in prison at first instance, mainly for statements he made in October to the French outlet Frontières, in which he claimed that Algeria had inherited under French colonization territories that until then had belonged to Morocco.
The writer, 80 years old and suffering from prostate cancer according to his relatives, has been at the center of fierce diplomatic tensions between Algeria and France since his arrest upon arrival at Algiers airport on November 16, 2024, accused of undermining the territorial integrity of the country.
Paris has called for a “gesture of humanity” toward a sick and weakened man. However, Algeria and France have been going through a severe diplomatic crisis since last summer, marked by the mutual expulsion of diplomats and the complete suspension of bilateral cooperation.
So far, the multiple requests for release or presidential pardon in favor of Mr. Sansal, including by President Emmanuel Macron, have been ignored.
Beyond the judicial process, friends of the writer wonder if he is even still alive.
With AFP
