Nobel Prize-winning authors demand release of novelist Boualem Sansal after 'arrest' in Algiers

Four Nobel Prize in Literature-winners, as well as eminent authors including Salman Rushdie, Giuliano da Empoli and Boris Cyrulnik, have called for the immediate release of Franco-Algerian novelist Boualem Sansal, who was arrested in Algiers on arrival from Paris on 16th November. The four Nobel Prize-winners are Annie Ernaux, Jean-Marie Le Clézio, Orhan Pamuk and Wole Soyinka. 

An op-ed published on the website of the French weekly newsmagazine le Point on Saturday demanded the release of “all writers imprisoned for their ideas”. The piece was written by le Point columnist Kamel Daoud, who is being sued for his Goncourt Prize-winning novel Houris. “This new tragedy reflects an alarming reality in Algeria, where freedom of expression is only a memory in the face of repression, imprisonments and the surveillance of the whole of society,” the op-ed said.

Sansal is known for his opposition to Islamism and the current Algerian regime. His family say they have had no news of him since his arrest, le Monde reported in an editorial. It suggested his alleged arrest could be linked to the novelist’s recent controversial statements made to the far-right French media Frontières.

Algeria has been at loggerheads with France since French President Emmanuel Macron came out in support of Morocco’s plan for autonomy of the western Sahara, a former Spanish colony, last July, and visited Morocco in October. The two North African countries have contested the territory for decades.

Gallimard, Sansal’s publisher for the last 25 years, has hired lawyer François Zimeray to defend Sansal, according to an Agence France Presse (AFP) dispatch reported by French media. Zimeray is reported to have said Sansal would see an Algerian prosecutor today (25th November).