An expected judicial result. The Franco-Algerio Boalem Sansal writer, imprisoned in Algeria for more than seven months, was sentenced for five years in prison for “Attack in the National Unit” this Tuesday, July 1.
Boalem Sansal had been sentenced on March 27 to five years in prison in the first instance, in particular for having affirmed in October 2024 that Algeria had inherited under the French colonization of territories belonging so far in Morocco.
Arnaud Benedetti, director of the political, parliamentary and co -founder magazine of the support committee of a writer, laments BFMTV.com a “predictable” decision by a “political” court, while the Prosecutor’s Office had requested, as in the first instance, ten years in prison.
Presidential grace on July 5?
The judges who condemned Bouaalem Sansal “are under the orders of a power that gets dishonor of their hostages of men’s men and now of journalists,” he also denounces the lawyer Richard Malka, a member of the Support Committee, evoking the condemnation of the French journalist Christophe Gleize at the beginning of the week.
The relatives of the writer now expect the date of July 5, which the Algerian leader Abdelmadjid Tebboune could pronounce a presidential forgiveness.
“It is traditional for Algerian presidents to do thanks at the time of national holidays. This is the only reason that gives us a time to maintain a form of hope in a situation that is still very worrying,” says Arnaud Benedetti.
The support committee begs an “immediate and unconditional” release of the 80 -year -old writer and suffers from prostate cancer.
“It should not be forced to remain in the Algerian territory, we want it to be free to move,” said Arnaud Benedetti.
French government requests that remained a dead letter
Until now, the multiple liberation requests or a grace of the Algerian President Abdelmajid Tebboune, “a gesture of humanity” claimed by the French president Emmanuel Macron in person, has remained a dead letter.
“If your release does not intervene quickly, then the observation that must be made will be that of our naivety and our weakness,” says lawyer Richard Malka with BFMTV.com.
When asked during his appeal judgment on his statements about Morocco held at the borders of the media very well, Boalem Sansal replied: “I not only do politics. I also express myself in history”, invoking the law guaranteed by the Constitution “to freedom of expression.”
The Sansal issue has indicated the tensions between Paris and Algiers, relaunched in July 2024 for the recognition of France of an “autonomy” under Moroccan sovereignty “for the Western Sahara, a territory that Morocco and the separatists of the Polisario have been competed by the Algiers for 50 years.
Since then, the two countries have been going through an unprecedented diplomatic crisis, marked by expulsions of diplomats on both sides, restrictions for diplomatic visas and freezing of all cooperation.
Source: BFM TV
