The arrest in Algiers of French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal has sparked new tensions between Algeria and France with French President Emmanuel Macron expressing “concern” over the “disappearance” of the outspoken novelist.
Sansal is known for his strong stances against both authoritarianism and Islamism as well as being a forthright campaigner on freedom of expression issues.
Sansal has been a controversial figure in Algeria over ties to the French far right and since making a visit to Israel in 2014.
It is not clear why he defiantly chose to travel to Algeria knowing the risks of being arrested.
The 75-year-old writer, granted French nationality this year, was arrested at Algiers airport after returning from France, according to several media reports including the Marianne weekly.
Algerian authorities confirmed his arrest Friday.
Official news agency APS said “the arrest of Boualem Sansal, the darling of the far right, has awakened the professionals of outrage”.
APS added that the outcry over the arrest of the writer has confirmed the existence of a French “lobby” devoted to Algeria “hate mongering”.
The French government has reacted strongly to reports of the naturalised writer’s arrest.
Macron is “very concerned by the disappearance” of Sansal, a French presidential official told AFP, asking not to be named.
“State services are mobilised to clarify his situation,” the official said, adding that “the president expresses his unwavering attachment to the freedom of a great writer and intellectual.”
The French publisher of French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal on Friday called for his immediate release from detention in Algeria.
The Gallimard publishing house, which has published his work for a quarter of a century, in a statement expressed “its very deep concern following the arrest of the writer by the Algerian security services”, calling for his “immediate release”.
A relative latecomer to writing, Sansal turned to novels in 1999 and has tackled subjects including the horrific 1990s civil war between authorities and Islamists.
Sansal’s abhorrence of Islamism has not been confined to Algeria however and he has also warned of a creeping Islamisation in France, a stance that has made him a favoured author of prominent figures on the right and far-right.
Rightist politicians rushed to echo Macron’s expression of concern for the writer.
Centre-right former premier and candidate in 2027 presidential elections Edouard Philippe wrote on X that Sansal “embodies everything we cherish: the call for reason, freedom and humanism against censorship, corruption and Islamism.”
Far-right figurehead Marine Le Pen, another possible 2027 contender, said: “This freedom fighter and courageous opponent of Islamism has reportedly been arrested by the Algerian regime. This is an unacceptable situation.”
In 2015, Sansal won the Grand Prix du Roman of the French Academy, the guardians of the French language, for his book “2084: The End of the World”, a dystopian novel inspired by George Orwell’s “Nineteen-Eighty Four” and set in an Islamist totalitarian world in the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust.
The concerns about his reported arrest come as another prominent French-Algerian writer Kamel Daoud is under attack over his novel “Houris”, which won France’s top literary prize, the Goncourt.
A woman has claimed the book was based on her story of surviving 1990s Islamist massacres and used without her consent.
She alleged on Algerian television that Daoud used the story she confidentially recounted to a therapist, who is now his wife, during her treatment. His publisher has denied the claims.
The controversies are taking place in a tense diplomatic context between France and Algeria, after Macron renewed French support for Moroccan sovereignty over the disputed territory of Western Sahara during a landmark visit to the kingdom last month.
Daoud meanwhile has called for Sansal’s release, writing in the right-wing Le Figaro: “I sincerely hope that my friend Boualem will return to us very soon”, while expressing his bafflement in the face of the “imprudence” that Sansal allegedly showed in going to Algeria.
