French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal has been sentenced to five years in prison and a fine of 500,000 dinars (€3,500) by the Dar El Beida Criminal Court in Algiers.
His 20-minute trial, which took place on March 20 without prior notice, ended with the prosecutor requesting a 10-year prison sentence and a fine of 1 million dinars. He had been in custody since Nov. 16, 2024.
The investigating judge had reclassified the facts of his case – which led Boualem Sansal, 80, to appear not before a criminal court, but before a correctional court.
The acceleration of the procedure suggests that the Algerian authorities are seeking to close this case as quickly as possible, reports Le Figaro.
During his trial, Boualem Sansal “totally denied” all the accusations made against him by the judge: undermining national unity, insulting a constituted body (the army), undermining the national economy and possessing videos and publications threatening national security and stability.
“Cruel detention, a twenty-minute hearing, a non-existent defense, and in the end, five years in prison for an innocent writer: a sentence that betrays the very meaning of the word justice,” his lawyer François Zimeray immediately said.
“His age and state of health make each day of incarceration even more inhumane. I appeal to the Algerian president: justice has failed, at least let humanity prevail,” he added.
According to another source, this sentence allows the Algerian state to “save face while leaving the door open to a possible presidential pardon,” which could, according to some forecasts, take place at the end of Ramadan or on July 5, on the occasion of the traditional pardons of the Independence and Youth Day. Since this measure can only apply to final sentences, Boualem Sansal’s choice not to appeal would be an indication in this direction.
The recent easing of tensions between Paris and Algiers, achieved through contacts at the highest level between the two capitals, undoubtedly weighed heavily in the verdict, which was still more lenient than what the prosecutor had sought.
While some demonstrated in Paris this week to demand the writer’s release, the Algerian media continued to insist that Boualem Sansal’s comments are serious. For the sovereignist website Algérie Patriotique, he is a “false martyr,” who “is not persecuted for having denounced injustice” but “glorified for having relativized colonization.”
The daily L’Expression declared that the accused has insisted he is not “undermining state security or harming Algeria” but this is “contrary” to what “his statements seen by millions of afflicted Algerians” suggest.
