the Algerian press agency confirms the arrest of the writer and slams “Macronito-Zionist France”

The Franco-Algerian writer and intellectual Boualem Sansal, fierce critic of the Algiers regime and Islamism, was arrested on Saturday by the Algerian authorities, the country’s public press agency announced in a vitriolic article, “Algeria Press Service”, this Friday, November 22. “Macronito-Zionist France (…) is offended by the arrest of Sansal at Algiers airport”notably wrote the APS in a post which inevitably contributes to the erosion of relations between Paris and Algiers.

According to our sources, Boualem Sansal will be presented before the prosecutor and a judge this Sunday, November 24. The worst possible scenario: he could be prosecuted under article 87 bis of the Penal Code. This article describes “terrorist or subversive” any act infringing “state security, territorial integrity, stability or the normal functioning of institutions”. The author’s recent statements on Morocco and Algeria could be interpreted as “attack on the symbols of the nation and the Republic”. The maximum penalty provided for in this case is the death penalty. But due to the moratorium practiced by Algeria, this sentence is systematically commuted to life imprisonment.

The Algerian authorities may have taken his statements to the French media badly Borderswhich take up the Moroccan position according to which the country’s territory was truncated under French colonization for the benefit of Algeria. It would be a “red line” for Algiers, which could result in the author being accused of“attack on national integrity”.

“France Macronito-Zionist”

“The comical agitation of part of the French political and intellectual class over the case of Boualem Sansal is further proof of the existence of a “hateful” current against Algeria. A lobby that never misses an opportunity to call into question Algerian sovereignty”writes the Algerian press agency in the remainder of its article. The APS thus cites a “anti-Algerian directory and incidentally pro-Zionist » which would act in Paris, and which includes in particular «Eric Zemmour Mohamed Sifaoui, Marine Le Pen, Xavier Driencourt, Valérie Pécresse, Jack Lang” and “Nicolas Dupont-Aignan”, according to the agency.

The agency takes the opportunity to severely tackle the “Macronito-Zionist France”Who “is offended by the arrest of Sansal (at Algiers airport)” and who “has still not declared to the world whether it has the necessary sovereignty to be able to arrest Benjamin Netanyahu, if he ever shows up at Charles De Gaulle airport!”. Since Thursday, the Israeli Prime Minister has been the subject of an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court. Italy, for its part, indicated that it would be in«obligation» to arrest him if he were to visit his territory. “Since Paris talks about law and human rights, complying with international law in the case of Netanyahu would already be a good start”charges the agency again.

“President Macron, who is returning from a tanned trip to Brazil, where he treated the “Asshole” Haitians (the Routine!), says he is “very concerned””continues the APS, for whom “Macron’s France is not one contradiction away.” “The same Macron who speaks of “crimes against humanity” in Algeria concerning French colonization (…) defends a negationist, who calls into question the existence, independence, history, sovereignty and borders of Algeria!”writes the public agency in reference to Boualem Sansal.

Shamed by Islamists and the regime

This 75-year-old author, with long gray hair gathered in a ponytail, found success from his debut in 1999 with The Barbarian Oatha novel which relates the rise to power of the fundamentalists who contributed to plunging Algeria into a civil war with an official death toll of 200,000. The writer, who has always displayed his freedom of thought, whether against power or religious fundamentalism, since he launched into literature, predicts an arrival of Islamism to power in «2084»published in 2015. His books, published in France, are sold freely in Algeria, but the author remains controversial there, particularly since a visit to Israel in 2014.

Although reviled by both the regime and the Islamists, Boualem Sansal continued to live in Algeria in recent years, where this trained economist led a long career as a senior civil servant in the Ministry of Industry from where he had been fired. in 2003 for his critical positions against the government. In 2019, he regularly traveled from Boumerdès, 50 kilometers east of Algiers, where he usually resides, to Algiers to participate in the pro-democracy protests of the «Hirak » against the power which led to the resignation of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. The intellectual was naturalized French in 2024.

“Outbreak of anti-Algerian fever”

“Should France not legislate with all its might on memorial laws, especially when it comes to anti-Jewish revisionism (Gayssot Law), rather condemn Sansal for his attempt to deny the very existence of the Algerian Nation?we can read.

Finally, the APS continues by judging that“with each outbreak of anti-Algerian fever, Paris charges Algiers with all the evils while Algeria always acts according to the principle of coherence.” “Accusing Algeria of preventing freedom of expression, while the French still hold Pavel Durov the founder of messaging Telegram a global platform for expression, is the confirmation of this sinister comedy of which only Sansal is the useful puppet. concludes the press agency. A few minutes after the publication of this article, the publisher of Boualem Sansal, Gallimard, called for the release of the writer after his “arrest” in Algeria.