Boualem Sansal

Boualem Sansal’s Speech for Freedom Published in Bookstores

This speech, given for “the German Publishers and Booksellers Peace Prize” and published in Gallimard’s Tracts collection, was originally delivered in Frankfurt, Germany, in October 2011. "The absence of freedom is a pain that drives one mad over time. It reduces a man to his shadow and his dreams to nightmares," Boualem Sansal declares in ...

Boualem Sansal: Five Years in Prison and an Unfolding Diplomatic Crisis

As Paris looked for signs of de-escalation from Algiers, the Dar al-Beïda court delivered its ruling. On Thursday, March 27, 2025, French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal was sentenced to five years in prison and fined 500,000 dinars (approximately €3,470). The sentence falls short of the ten-year term requested by the public prosecutor a week ...

Algeria Summons French Ambassador Over Accusations of Interference

Algeria's foreign ministry has summoned the French ambassador to reprimand him for what it described as efforts to destabilize the country, several Algerian media outlets reported on Sunday. The ambassador, Stéphane Romatet, was "informed of the firm disapproval of the highest Algerian authorities in response to numerous French provocations and ...

Alarm in France over fate of prize-winning French-Algerian writer

French President Emmanuel Macron is concerned about the "disappearance" of French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, his office said, after reports that the prize-winning novelist had been arrested in Algeria. Sansal, a major figure in francophone modern literature, is known for his strong stances against both authoritarianism and Islamism as well ...