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Boualem Sansal Won’t Appeal Five-Year Sentence in Algeria, Hopes for Pardon
Rabat – French-Algerian author Boualem Sansal will not appeal his five-year prison sentence in Algeria, France 24 reported today.
The report quoted “sources close to the author” as saying that they are hopeful for a presidential pardon.
The 80-year-old writer was jailed in March for comments he made about Algeria’s borders with Morocco, which the government considered an attack on national unity.
The case against him began after he spoke to French outlet Frontières. In the interview, he said that France had unfairly given Moroccan land to Algeria during the colonial era.
Sansal was arrested in November 2024 when he arrived at the airport in Algiers. In March 2025, a court in Dar El Beida sentenced him to five years in prison and gave him a fine of 500,000 Algerian dinars (about $3,730). He was charged with undermining Algeria’s territorial integrity.
An Algerian appeals court confirmed the sentence on July 1. Now, according to his support committee, Sansal has decided not to take the case to Algeria’s Supreme Court.
Noëlle Lenoir, head of the support committee and a former French government minister, told France Inter radio that the decision not to appeal was based on the poor state of the Algerian justice system. “He has no chance of having his offence reclassified,” she said. “This means the sentence is final.”
His French lawyer declined to comment, but France 24 said sources confirmed Sansal has officially given up his right to appeal.
French Prime Minister François Bayrou has expressed hope that Algeria will pardon the writer. Sansal, who has been receiving treatment for prostate cancer, was not included in the recent mass pardon by Algeria’s president ahead of the country’s Independence Day, which is today.
“We believe he will be released. It is impossible for Algeria to take responsibility for his death in prison,” Lenoir added.
Sansal is a well-known figure in North African literature and has won several awards for his writing. He is famous for his criticism of the Algerian authorities.
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