A message of hope. When asked about the fate of the writer Boalem Sansal, sentenced at the end of March to five years from prison in Algeria, Emmanuel Macron shows his optimism in a context of the net warming of relations between Algiers and Paris.
Apart from a trip to the Book Fair in Paris this Thursday, the Head of State said he had “confidence” in a possible release, indicating that the intellectual Franco-Algerio was subject to “special attention” by the Algerian authorities.
“Cover your most complete freedom”
After several months of detention, Boalem Sansal, who was arrested upon arrival in Algiers last November, was sentenced to five years in prison and a fine of 500,000 Dinares, or around 3,500 euros, last March.
During his trial, the prosecutor had requested, for his time, ten years in prison against the novelist. The French State is now put in a possible presidential grace to free the intellectual, especially because it is seriously ill.
“Our most burning desire, and what we are working on, is about the fact that the Algerian authorities can make the decision that will allow him to recover his most complete freedom,” he insisted on the head of state.
A call to “humanity”
The situation of Boalem Sansal has aggravated the already very strong tensions between the two countries since the announcement of French president Emmanuel Macron for his support for an autonomy plan under Moroccan sovereignty for the territory in dispute of the Western Sahara.
The writer was convicted of attacking the integrity of the Algerian territory, for having taken his account, in Fronters, a French medium of the extreme right, the position of Morocco according to which his territory would have been amputated for the benefit of Algeria under French colonization.
Following the intellectual conviction, Emmanuel Macron had asked the Algerian authorities to show “humanity.”
Source: BFM TV
