An 80-year-old writer has been sentenced to five years in prison after an Algerian court accused him of undermining the country’s territorial integrity.
Boualem Sansal was arrested last year in an interview with the far-right French media outlet, which during the colonial era, provided too much land for Algeria and too little land for Morocco.
He also said that the controversial territoriality of Western Sahara was part of Morocco in history.
During his detention, French-Algerian writers spent bad health in hospitals.
His case sparked support from intellectuals and politicians, including Nigerian Nobel Prize writer Wole Soyinka and French President Emmanuel Macron.
“In addition to the worrying health conditions, the arbitrary detention of Sansar is one of the elements that need to be addressed before confidence. [between our countries] Can be fully recovered. Macron said in February.
According to his friends, the writer found himself at the center of deepening diplomatic bank.
His supporters in France recently said: “He would not want to be a pawn of a troubled relationship between Paris and Algiers.”
Algeria was once a precious French colony and fought the tenacious war of independence, eventually winning sovereignty in 1962.
Relations between the two countries have long been tense, but reached a new low last year, when France supported Morocco’s claims on the Western Sahara and Algeria supported the Polisario Group to fight for the independence of the territory.
Algiers withdraw the response from the Paris ambassador.
Three years ago, Algeria cut off diplomatic ties with Morocco.
After Wednesday’s court ruling, Sansar’s lawyers begged Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune to show the writers “human nature”.
Sansar, known for his anti-Islamist views, is an outspoken critic of the Algerian government.
His critics say he is the far-right darling, his prejudice.
Marine Le Pen, the French leader of the far-right, called Sansal “a free fighter and a brave Islamist opponent.”
His age was previously reported to be 75, but his publisher Gallimard said he was actually 80.
Other reports from Marcus Erbe
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