France – France 24, Nov. 18, 2025
Freed French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal is “back in France”, six days after his transfer via Germany, according to his support committee. Sansal was arrested in November 2024 in Algiers during a diplomatic crisis between France and Algeria. Upon his arrival, Sansal was welcomed by President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee.
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 on Tuesday.
“The International Support Committee for Boualem Sansal warmly welcomes the return to France of our friend and compatriot”, the statement said, without providing further details. “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,” he added.
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 Steinmeier.
Sansal travelled to France from Germany where he had been receiving medical treatment following his release last week.
His novels warning of the risks of creeping authoritarianism but also Islamisation have made him a favourite on the right in France but deeply unpopular with the authorities in his country of birth.
In October 2024, Sansal told a far-right French media outlet that France had unjustly transferred Moroccan territory to Algeria during the 1830-1962 colonial period.
