The Algiers court of appeal confirmed this Tuesday morning the sentence of 5 years in prison for the writer. The game is not over: Paris awaits and hopes for liberation as part of presidential grace.
It was the most predictable scenario: the Algiers court of appeal confirmed this Tuesday 1is July the sentence pronounced against Boualem Sansal: five years in prison and 500,000 fine dinars (around 3,500 euros).
The 80-year-old Franco-Algerian writer had already been sentenced to first instance on March 27 for “Involvement in national unity”, “Body outrage”, “Practices likely to harm the national economy” and “detention of publications threatening the security of the country”. At first instance as on appeal, the prosecution had requested 10 years’ imprisonment and a million fine dinars (7000 euros).
The option of a confirmation of sentence had been anticipated as one of the possible paths to one output from the top for the Algerian authorities.
The justice having decided, the looks therefore now turn to the Algerian president Abdelmadjid Tebboune, the only ability to grant a measure of grace. Paris is also betting on a “Humanitarian gesture” As the Minister of Foreign Affairs has often repeated Jean-Noël Barrot. The logic would like the Algerian Head of State to intervene on the occasion of the graces granted on July 5, on the occasion of the 63e anniversary of the country’s independence.
In previous years, presidential grace had affected prisoners sentenced definitively or in pre -trial detention, suffering from chronic diseases, or over 65 years old. If the conviction is considered final after the decision of the Court of Appeal – Boualem Sansal should not decide to appeal to the Cassation before the Supreme Court -, and taking into account his age and his state of health (the essayist is suffering from cancer), the author of Barbarian oath would enter into the scope of these decrees.
This would allow Algeria to close the file without having to deny the independence of its justice, a gesture that France would interpret as a appeasement signal to get out of the last bilateral conflict caused by the expulsion, in April, of the twelve French civil servants stationed in Algeria.
Since the arrest of Boualem Sansal on November 16, 2024, the file quickly exceeded the judicial framework, inventing the diplomatic crisis between Paris and Algiers launched in July 2024 by the recognition by France of a plan of autonomy “under Moroccan sovereignty” for Western Sahara.
If grace was not granted quickly, the diplomatic consequences could be heavy. The return of Stéphane Romatet, the French ambassador to Algeria, recalled in Paris on April 15, could be compromised. And diplomatic visas blocked for months so that consuls, diplomats and other appointed officials can take up their duties, would remain frozen. The de facto situation of quasi-diplomatic random could last, especially since the conviction, Sunday in Algeria, of a French sports journalist, Christophe Gleizes, to seven years in prison for “apology of terrorism”, does not help to relax the atmosphere.
