French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal given five year prison sentence

French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal has been sentenced to five years in prison in Algeria for undermining the country’s territorial integrity.

Sansal was arrested in November last year at Algiers airport after he said that France unfairly ceded Moroccan territory to Algeria to far-right French media outlet Frontières. Since his detention, Sansal has spent most of this time in hospital due to a cancer diagnosis.

The writer’s sentence was read outside of the court in Dar El Beïda yesterday, saying he was to serve a “five-year prison term” and pay a fine of 500,000 Algerian dinars (€3,500).

Prosecutors had requested a 10-year prison sentence for the novelist, who has been convicted under article 87 of the Algerian penal code for undermining national unity, insulting an official body, undermining the national economy and possessing videos and publications that threaten national security and stability.

Sansal defended his comments to the media, telling the court that “my comments or writings were simply a personal opinion, and I have the right to do so like any Algerian citizen”.

Born in Algeria during the French colonial period, Sansal has written exclusively in French and gained French citizenship in 2024. The writer has spent much of his literary career criticising the rise of Islam in Algeria, adn since 2006, his books have been banned in the country. His novel "2084: La fin du monde" ("2084: The End of the World"), a dystopian novel set in an Islamist totalitarian society following nuclear war, was awarded the 2015 Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie Française.

French President Emmanuel Macron has called on Algeria to release Sansal.

“I hope there can be humanitarian decisions by the highest Algerian authorities to give him back his freedom and allow him to be treated for the disease he is fighting,” he said in a news conference.

It’s not the first time Macron has spoken up for Sansal. In January, the president accused Algeria of “disgracing itself” through the imprisonment.

“Algeria, which we love so much and with which we share so many children and so many stories, is dishonoring itself by preventing a seriously ill man from receiving treatment,” he said during a speech to French ambassadors at the Elysée Palace. “And we who love the people of Algeria and its history urge its government to release Boualem Sansal,” Macron continued.

“We deplore the sentencing of our fellow citizen Boualem Sansal to prison,” Christophe Lemoine, spokesperson for France’s Foreign Ministry said. He added that the French government was urging Algeria to find “a rapid, humanitarian and dignified resolution to this situation”.

Following his arrest in November, Sansal has gained mass public support in France. French news magazine Le Point released a letter written by Prix Goncourt winner Kamel Daoud and signed by multiple famous authors, demanding Sansal’s immediate release.

Signatories of the letter include the Nobel Prize winners Annie Ernaux, Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio, Orhan Pamuk, Salman Rushdie, Peter Sloterdjik, Roberto Saviano and Wole Soyinka.

The letter reads: “This tragic news reflects an alarming reality in Algeria, where freedom of expression is nothing more than a memory in the face of repression, imprisonment, and the surveillance of the entire society.”