Why was the writer Boualem Sansal arrested in Algeria ? The fate of the Franco-Algerian is worrying

Awarded the Grand Prix du Roman by the Académie Française in 2015 and censored in Algeria, the author was arrested on November 16th near Algiers. His hostility towards the regime could be held against him.

He had not given any sign of life for six days. Boualem Sansal, a Franco-Algerian writer, was “arrested by the police and imprisoned by the Algerian regime”, according to information from Marianne. A fact confirmed by RFI, adding that the 75-year-old man was arrested in Dar El Beida, in east of the Algerian capital, “a few minutes after leaving Houari Boumédiène International Airport, Saturday, November 16, 2024.” The media outlet said the author should be presented to the prosecutor of the Republic of Algiers or Boumerdes.

In the crosshairs of the Algerian authorities

A successful writer, Boualem Sansal is known for his critical stance towards the Algerian regime and Islamism. Several of his books have even been censored in Algeria, but are for example published in France. In 2015, he won the Grand Prix du Roman of the Académie française for his novel 2084: la fin du monde, published by Gallimard. Despite threats, he never agreed to give in to pressure from Algiers and even returned “regularly” to his country, Marianne specifies.

For the time being, the reasons for Boualem Sansal's arrest have not been made official by the Algerian authorities. According to RFI, the man who now has Algerian nationality French – since 2024 – should be arrested for his comments made in the columns of the French far-right media, Frontières, December 15, 2023: “When France colonized Algeria, the entire western part of Algeria was part of Morocco: Tlemcem, Oran and even up to Mascara. This whole region was part of the kingdom,” he said. A highly inflammatory subject in Algeria, and taken up by the Moroccan media. 

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As early as 2003, Boualem Sansal was in the sights of the Algerian authorities. His book Tell me paradise– drawing up a critical assessment of post-colonial Algeria – had cost him his position as Director General at the Ministry of Industry. And he is not an isolated case. The last Goncourt Prize, awarded to the Algerian Kamel Daoud for his novel Houris, was not welcomed as a victory in his country. Two complaints have been filed against him, he is notably accused by a victim of the civil war for having exploited his story.

Tense relations between Paris and Algiers, Macron "very worried"

Now, the fate of the Franco-Algerian is causing concern. Indeed, his arrest comes in a context that is tense to say the least between France and Algeria. The Algerian authorities have not digested Emmanuel Macron's support for the Moroccan autonomy plan for the disputed territory of Western Sahara, last July. A former Spanish enclave, this area is mainly controlled by Morocco, but claimed by the Sahrawi independence movement of the Polisario Front, supported by Algiers. Since the French head of state recognized Morocco's sovereignty over this territory, Paris' neutrality is no longer there and relations with Algiers are delicate.

The fate of Boualem Sansal is taken seriously. The tenant of the "Élyséeé said he was "very worried" through his entourage to AFP. “The President of the Republic expresses his unwavering commitment to the freedom of a great “writer and intellectual”, it was specified. For his part, the leader of the MP Les Républicains, Laurent Wauquiez, affirms that “all means of pressure on Algeria must be activated to obtain the release of our compatriot”. In an op-ed for Le Figaro, the winner of the 2024 Goncourt Prize, Kamel Daoud, “strongly hopes that his friend Boualem Sansal will return to us very soon”. According to RFI, Boualem Sansal could be prosecuted for “attacking the national unity and territorial integrity of the country” and “inciting the division of the country”, charges punishable by prison sentences in Algeria.