Rabat: PonteSud – News Desk
A public prosecutor in Algeria has requested a 10-year prison sentence against French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal.
AFP quoted the prosecutor, who is demanding a “10 years in prison and a fine of one million [Algerian] dinars.”
The Court of Appeal will issue its verdict on the appeal case on July 1.
An Algerian court initially sentenced Sansal to five years in prison in March.
Police in Algeria arrested the author upon arrival in Algiers on November 16 last year. He was charged of undermining the country’s territorial integrity.
The arrest came after he made remarks in an interview that France unfairly ceded Moroccan territory to Algeria during the colonial era.
Sansal appealed the court sentence, and his lawyer is not ruling out the possibility of a pardon.
“Under Article 91 of the Algerian Constitution, an appeal does not stand in the way of a presidential pardon,” he said. He also suggested that if a humanitarian release became an option, he would advise Sansal to withdraw the appeal.
The arrest came amid fragile relations and escalating tensions between Algiers and Paris.
In January, French President Emmanuel Macron sharply criticized Algeria for imprisoning the renowned author, denouncing the move as a “disgrace.”
Speaking before French ambassadors at the Élysée, Macron accused the Algerian authorities of denying the gravely ill author access to medical care.
“Algeria dishonors itself by preventing a gravely ill man from receiving proper care,” Macron stated.
Among the factors that led to the tensions are France’s decision to recognize Morocco’s sovereignty over its southern provinces in Western Sahara.
One of the factors is also Algeria’s reluctance to receive its nationals subjected to a deportation order from Paris.
