ALGIERS: An Algerian court on Thursday sentenced French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, whose case has been at the heart of a diplomatic storm, to five years behind bars, an AFP journalist inside the courtroom said.
The author is known for his criticism of Algerian authorities as well as of Islamists.
He was arrested in November and stood trial for undermining Algeria’s territorial integrity, after saying in an interview with a far-right French media outlet that France unfairly ceded Moroccan territory to Algeria during the colonial era.
The statement, which echoed a long-standing Moroccan claim, was viewed by Algeria as an affront to its national sovereignty.
A court in Dar El Beida, near Algiers, sentenced “the defendant in his presence to a five-year prison term” with a fine of 500,000 Algerian dinars ($3,730).
Last week, prosecutors at an Algiers court requested a 10-year prison sentence for the novelist whose work has remained available in Algeria despite his criticism of the government.
Though Sansal was relatively unknown in France before his arrest, the trial has sparked a wave of support from French intellectuals and officials.
French President Emmanuel Macron has dismissed the accusations against Sansal as “not serious,” but had expressed confidence in Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune’s “clarity of vision” on the matter.
Macron has repeatedly called for the writer’s release, citing his fragile state of health due to cancer.
Sansal’s French lawyer, Francois Zimeray, condemned the decision in a post on X as “a sentence that betrays the very meaning of the word justice.
“His age and his health make every day he spends in jail even more inhuman. I appeal to the Algerian presidence: justice has failed, let humanity at least prevail.”
Algerian news site TSA has written that the trial was “not just about the fate of one man but also the immediate future of relations” between Algeria and its former colonial ruler.
Ties between the two countries have been strained over migration issues and since Macron recognized Moroccan sovereignty over the disputed territory of Western Sahara in July last year.
Western Sahara is mostly controlled by Morocco but claimed by the Algeria-backed pro-independence Polisario Front, which seeks a UN-backed self-determination referendum that has never materialized since a 1991 ceasefire.
At his trial last week, Sansal said he had not foreseen the potential repercussions of his comments on Algeria’s borders with Morocco.
He also denied any intent to harm Algeria, saying he merely “expressed an opinion” in the name of “freedom of expression,” according to Algerian newspaper Echorouk.
Algeria has blamed the French right and far right for fueling the dispute, arguing that French diplomacy is now led by hard-liners favoring its regional rival, Morocco.
In an apparent attempt to ease tensions, Tebboune said in an interview on Saturday that the case was “in good hands” and described Macron as his “sole point of reference” for repairing strained ties.
Prior to Thursday’s sentencing, analyst Hasni Abidi said the author might be granted a presidential pardon during upcoming Muslim or national holidays.
