Activists turn to EU to push for release of Sansal from Algeria

The campaign to free Boualem Sansal, a prominent French-Algerian novelist imprisoned in Algeria, has shifted from Paris to Brussels. The main group advocating for his release has turned to the European Union, concluding that France has little sway over Algiers in the current diplomatic climate, Politico reports.

Sansal, 80, was arrested in November upon arriving in Algiers and sentenced to five years for allegedly undermining national unity. The vocal critic of Algeria’s government is reportedly in poor health.

“Sansal is very ill and we don’t know if he has access to a doctor in jail,” said Noëlle Lenoir, a former French government minister serving as the president of the group. “We are very worried because we have very little news about him. We think he’s detained in isolation and deprived of his telephone.”

Efforts to lobby the French government have stalled amid deteriorating relations between France and Algeria. Diplomatic ties soured after France backed Morocco’s autonomy plan for Western Sahara — a move Algeria strongly opposes.

“Since the Western Sahara move, [President] Tebboune feels betrayed… the relationship is limping from crisis to crisis,” a French official told Politico.

With France seen as ineffective, the group has appealed to EU officials including top diplomat Kaja Kallas and the European External Action Service. A formal complaint has also been filed with the European Ombudsman, which previously investigated the EU’s migration deal with Tunisia over human rights concerns.

Lenoir is urging the EU to launch a similar inquiry into Algeria, citing a clause in the EU-Algeria Association Agreement that ties cooperation and trade to respect for human rights. The European Parliament backed a resolution in January that demanded EU institutions call for his release.

Kallas and the European External Action Service have yet to comment publicly on Sansal.

His appeal trial is set for June 24. His supporters hope Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune will intervene with a pardon.