The charges are heavy. French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, 75, received an arrest warrant from the prosecutor specializing in state security cases at the Dar-El-Beïda court, in the southeastern suburb of Algiers. Imprisoned on Thursday, November 21, in the Koléa prison, west of the capital, he has since been hospitalized in the Mustapha-Pacha hospital in Algiers.
“He is in good health, he appealed his internment order”explains a judicial source. Boualem Sansal is accused in particular of“attack on the integrity of the national territory”, which, according to article 87 bis of the penal code, is assimilated to an act of “terrorism”. He risks being sentenced to life imprisonment or even the death penalty, although no capital executions have been carried out in Algeria since 1993.
Some journalists and activists in Algiers hoped, without really believing it, that the authorities would opt for restraint by subjecting the perpetrator to judicial surveillance (a sentence usually accompanied by a ban on leaving the territory) to avoid harmful imprisonment for the country’s international reputation. There was no shortage of alerts, including “His arrest will benefit him and harm the image of Algeria abroad”.
The imprisonment of the writer demonstrates a hardening on the part of the Algerian authorities. Arrested on November 16 upon arrival at Algiers airport by members of the General Directorate of Internal Security, Boualem Sansal has not shown any signs of life since then. On the other hand, no official information had been leaked regarding his arrest, indirectly confirmed on November 22 by a press release from the official Algérie Presse Service agency, which described Boualem Sansal as “pseudo-intellectual, revered by the French extreme right” and of “puppet of anti-Algerian revisionism”.
The reasons for his arrest have not yet been revealed, but the more the days passed, the more the hope that it was a “simple” criminal offense receded. In such a case, the “suspect” can only be detained for 48 hours, renewable twice. With this deadline having expired, the “terrorism” proceedings initiated against this trained engineer seemed inevitable.
“Destabilize Morocco”
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