An appeals court in the Algerian capital on Tuesday upheld the five-year prison sentence against French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal on charges of "undermining national unity," according to an AFP journalist in the courtroom.
The presiding judge spoke to Sansal in French after the ruling was read in Arabic, saying, "The ruling of the lower court has been confirmed. You have eight days to appeal to the Court of Cassation."
The writer's new French lawyer, Pierre Cornut-Gentil, who arrived in Algiers in recent days, declined to comment on this possibility when asked by AFP.
"I have no comment; I have to visit my client to discuss the possibility of an appeal," he said.
The lawyer for the 80-year-old writer, who is suffering from cancer, explained that he "met with him yesterday (Monday), and he is well."
On March 27, a lower court sentenced Sansal to five years in prison for undermining national unity. He was convicted of threatening national unity for statements he made in October to the right-wing French media outlet Frontières, in which he adopted the Moroccan position that part of the kingdom's territory was annexed under French colonial rule and annexed to Algeria.
His arrest on November 16 in Algiers ignited a fierce dispute between Paris and Algeria that erupted in July 2024 over France's recognition of an autonomy plan "under Moroccan sovereignty" for Western Sahara, a territory disputed for half a century by Morocco and the Polisario Front, an independence movement backed by Algeria.
Since then, the two countries have been embroiled in an unprecedented diplomatic crisis marked by the expulsion of diplomats from both sides, restrictions on diplomatic visa holders, and a freeze in cooperation.
.jpg)
0 Comments