The 75-year-old author, who obtained French nationality this year, was arrested on Saturday at Algiers airport from France, several French media reported.
Published on 11/22/2024 00:01
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The Algerian writer Boualem Sansal in Paris on 29 October 2015. (FRANCOIS GUILLOT/AFP)
French President Emmanuel Macron is “very worried about the disappearance” of the French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal who, according to various media, was arrested in Algeria, the head of state’s entourage reported on Thursday 27 November. “The state services are mobilized to clarify his situation”it is clarified, adding that “the President of the Republic expresses his unshakable attachment to the freedom of a great writer and intellectual”.
The 75-year-old author, who obtained French nationality this year, was arrested on Saturday at Algiers airport from France, several French media reported. The reasons for his arrest are unknown. According to the weekly MarianneThe “he has not given any news to his loved ones since his arrival in Algiers”.
Several French political leaders, especially those belonging to the right and center-right, have also expressed their concern and support for the writer, known for his freedom of thought, both against the Algerian power and against religious fundamentalism, since he launched in literature in 1999. . “We must activate all means of pressure on Algeria to obtain the release of our compatriot, the great writer Boualem Sansal”pleaded the leader of the LR deputies (republicans, right) Laurent Wauquiez.
Boualem Sansal has been successful since the beginning The barbaric oatha novel that chronicles the rise to power of fundamentalists who helped plunge his country into a civil war that left at least 200,000 dead between 1992 and 2002. His books, published in France, are sold freely in Algeria but the author is controversial, particularly after a visit to Israel in 2014.