France – Le JDD, Aug. 27, 2025
Sabeha Sansal, daughter of writer Boualem Sansal, spoke in an interview with Le Figaro. Receiving no news from her father, imprisoned in Algeria for nine months, she denounces the silence of the French authorities and calls for an international mobilization for his release.
While visiting France for an evening in support of the writer, Sabeha Sansal, Boualem Sansal’s second daughter, gave Le Figaro an emotional testimony about her father’s imprisonment in Algeria. She denounces the French government’s silence and calls for international action to secure his release.
“Since his arrest, we have had no direct contact with my father. Not a call, not a letter, not even a sign that could reassure us about his health or detention conditions,” she confides. “Everything we know comes through indirect, fragmentary, and often uncertain channels. This complete lack of communication is one of the hardest things to bear.”
For Sabeha Sansal, the imposed silence on her father constitutes a double punishment: “On top of his imprisonment comes erasure—the idea that, by preventing him from communicating, one could symbolically make him disappear. That is precisely what we refuse to accept.” She also regrets the lack of response from French authorities, despite an open letter she and her sister sent to Emmanuel Macron last April. “Neither I, nor our family, nor even the international support committee have received the slightest response,” she asserts. “Not a word, not a sign […] This silence, coming from the country of human rights, wounds us deeply.”
Toward International Mobilization?
She says she is, however, encouraged by the recent hardening of France’s diplomatic stance. “By adopting this position, the President of the Republic sends an unambiguous message: Boualem Sansal’s freedom is not a diplomatic bargaining chip; it is a political and moral imperative.” In early August, the head of state asked the government to “take further decisions” in order to “act with greater firmness and determination” against Abdelmadjid Tebboune’s regime.
