Algeria holds French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal on national security charges

NEWS WIRES

26 November 2024 at 12:13 pm·1-min read

Boualem Sansal is a major figure in modern French literature and is known for his strong stances against both authoritarianism and Islamism.

Algerian authorities have detained the prize-winning French-Algerian novelist Boualem Sansal on national security charges, his French lawyer said on Tuesday, days after French authorities expressed concern over the writer's fate.

Algerian authorities have remanded in custody on national security charges prominent French-Algerian novelist Boualem Sansal following his arrest earlier this month that sparked alarm throughout the literary world, his French lawyer said on Tuesday.

"Boualem Sansal... was today placed in detention" on the basis of an article of the Algerian penal code "which punishes all attacks on state security", lawyer Francois Zimeray said in a statement to AFP.

He added that Sansal had been interrogated by "anti-terrorist" prosecutors and said he was being "deprived of his freedom on the grounds of his writing".

Sansal, a major figure in francophone modern literature, is known for his strong stances against both authoritarianism and Islamism, as well as being a forthright campaigner on freedom of expression issues.

His detention by Algeria comes against a background of tensions between France and its former colony, which also appear to have spread to the literary world.

A woman has claimed the book was based on her story of surviving 1990s Islamist massacres and used without her consent.

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