French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, who had been in Germany since his release from prison in Algeria on Wednesday, is “back in France,” his support committee announced in a statement.
“The International Support Committee for Boualem Sansal warmly welcomes the return to France of our friend and compatriot,” the statement said on Tuesday, without providing further details.
Sansal, 81, who is suffering from cancer, was arrested in November 2024 in Algiers in the midst of a diplomatic crisis between France and Algeria.
He was pardoned last Wednesday by Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune at the request of his German counterpart Frank-Walter Seinmeier.
Algeria handed Sansal a five-year jail term in March on charges of undermining its territorial integrity after arresting him in November last year on arrival from France.
A prize-winning figure in North African modern francophone literature, Sansal is known for his criticism of Algerian authorities as well as of Islamists. He acquired French nationality in 2024.
Sansal’s Support Committee, a group of politicians, intellectuals and activists created to call for Sansal’s release, welcomed the author's return to France. “We send our fraternal greetings to Boualem and his family, who went through this long, unfair and painful ordeal with courage and dignity,” the group said in a statement.
“It will now be up to the writer to choose the moment and the formats in which he wishes to express himself. The Committee will fully respect this time of rest, reconstruction and newfound freedom,” it added.
Even after Sansal's release, prominent French sports journalist Christophe Gleizes remains in an Algerian prison, sentenced to seven years for “glorifying terrorism” for having sought to interview an outlawed group.
The support committee of Sansal for its part urged the “immediate release” of Gleizes.
