The arrest of an outspoken writer who flew back to his Algerian homeland and was quietly taken into custody upon arrival has set off alarm in literary and political circles worldwide and threatens to trigger a diplomatic incident.
The 75-year-old novelist, Boualem Sansal, disappeared for about a week after being detained on Nov. 16, with the Algerian government neither announcing his arrest not offering an explanation for it. Rumors swirled. Then on Monday, he was accused at hearing of “endangering the nation” with his proclamations, according to his lawyer in France, François Zimeray.
Mr. Sansal, who since this year has French as well as Algerian citizenship, has a long history of ruffling feathers and is a pointed critic of the Algerian government.
His lawyer suggested that the charges were likely tied to recent comments by the writer that touched on a sore spot for Algeria and came at particularly fraught moment in its relations with France.
Mr. Sansal had endorsed an argument that French colonization benefited Algeria by depriving Morocco of land in the disputed territory of Western Sahara, which was once part of its kingdom. His statements coincided with a visit to Morocco in late October by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, after France backed a plan that would give Morocco sovereignty over the territory.
Algeria rejects Morocco’s claim to the land, and cut off diplomatic ties with its neighbor in 2021, so France’s decision to align with the Moroccans angered the Algerian government. Mr. Zimeray said he believed that Mr. Sansal was now “paying the high price for a French-Algerian relationship that has very much deteriorated.”
The arrest, he said, “is a consequence of those tensions — and exacerbates the tensions.”
Mr. Zimeray said that his client was not represented by a lawyer at the hearing on Monday and that he had yet to meet with counsel in Algeria.
Mr. Sansal became a French citizen this year in a ceremony that Mr. Macron attended, and the president’s office says that France has been working to clarify his situation, expressing concern over the arrest. But French officials have declined to elaborate on the steps they are taking, citing the need for discretion in diplomacy.
It was not until age 50 that Mr. Sansal, who had been working as an engineer for the Algerian government, published his first book, “The Oath of the Barbarians,” in 1999. The novel was critical of Islamic fundamentalism and government repression, putting Mr. Sansal out of a job but positioning him as a late-blooming literary luminary.
Ostracized in Algerian society for going against the grain, Mr. Sansal has described himself as “like a castaway on a desert island.” But until now the government in Algiers hadn’t arrested him, according to his lawyer. And however chilly his reception at home, he became a noted literary figure internationally, especially in France, where he is embraced across the ideological spectrum for his anti-authoritarianism and opposition to fundamentalism.
Since reports spread that Mr. Sansal had been detained, writers and publishers have mobilized on his behalf. Winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature, including Annie Ernaux and Orhan Pamuk, and other renowned authors like Salman Rushdie joined an opinion article by the French-Algerian writer Kamel Daoud in Le Point, a French news magazine.
“In Algeria, writers and intellectuals, publishers, booksellers live in fear of reprisals,accusations of espionage and arbitrary arrests, trials and defamation and violent media attacks on their staff and their loved ones,” they wrote. “A real editorial terrorism is targeting them.”
A former French prime minister, Édouard Philippe, said that he was “profoundly worried.” Mr. Sansal, he said, “embodies everything we cherish: the call to reason, freedom and humanism against censorship, corruption and Islamism.”
Two days before the hearing, an editorial in Algerian state media confirmed the arrest and dismissed criticism of it as “comical,” calling it further proof of “a hateful current against Algeria” in France’s political and intellectual echelons. Mr. Sansal, it said, was “a puppet of anti-Algerian revisionism.”
Repression of Algerian journalists has been increasing in recent years. In 2019, mass protests forced Algeria’s president from power and his replacement, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who was elected with military support, has pushed the country toward harsher authoritarianism. Dozens of journalists are believed to have been imprisoned as the government has sought to prevent mass protests from flaring again, though the figures are murky given the difficulty of independent reporting, experts say.
Mr. Sansal’s lawyers in Algeria planned to try to see their client in jail on Wednesday, but entry was not assured, Mr. Zimeray said. They also planned to seek his release on bail, but it was unclear late in the day whether they had been granted access.
Mr. Zimeray said he was trying to “decrease the temperature” around the case, making it less about diplomatic disputes and more about Algeria’s claim that Mr. Sansal’s words endangered national security — which the lawyer characterized as “a bit of an exaggeration.” He said his client had not thought he would be arrested.
“He is the embodiment of freedom,” Mr. Sansal said.
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