France – Boulevard Voltaire, May 16, 2025
As the writer marks six months in detention, his supporters appeal to Macron and the EU.
On the morning of May 16, an unusual commotion stirred outside the Algerian Embassy in Paris, near the quiet Parc Monceau. Under the Algerian flag flying above the building, several French public figures gathered discreetly to create a surprise effect. Their goal was clear: to finally secure the release of an innocent writer, imprisoned and victimized for six months as of May 16 by the Algerian regime.
“France is a great country, this cannot be accepted,” said Noëlle Lenoir, former member of the Constitutional Council and former Minister for European Affairs under Prime Minister Raffarin, speaking to BV after the demonstration. “The fact that Algeria is holding a hostage is unacceptable.”
Alongside Noëlle Lenoir, who chairs the Support Committee for Boualem Sansal, participants included Revue Politique et Parlementaire editor-in-chief Arnaud Benedetti (the committee’s founder), former Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer, writer and environmental critic Alexandre Jardin, psychoanalyst Michel Gad Wolkowicz, and philosopher Pascal Bruckner, among others. They came to say they would not forget Boualem Sansal. Notably absent were members of La France Insoumise, who voted against a motion for Sansal’s immediate release in the National Assembly on May 7.
