An Algerian court sentenced the 80-year-old writer to five years in prison after accusing the country of undermining the integrity of the country’s territory.
Boulem Sansal was arrested last year in an interview with a far-right French media outlet who said that during the colonial era, France gave too much land to Algeria and too little land to Morocco.
He also said that the conflict territory in the Western Sahara was historically part of Morocco.
During his detention, the French-Algerian author spent time in the hospital due to illness.
His incident sparked a wave of support from intellectuals and politicians, including Nigerian Nobel Prize-winning author Wore Soyinka and French President Emmanuel Macron.
“Boualem Sansal’s arbitrary detention is one of the factors that need to be resolved before confidence, along with his worrying health situation. [between our countries] Macron said in February.
According to his friends, the writer finds himself in the heart of a deep column of diplomats.
“He was unwillingly pawned in his troubled relationship with Paris and Algiers,” a committee of his supporters in France recently said.
Algeria was a once-respected French colony and fought the War of Independence, which ultimately gained its sovereignty in 1962.
Relations between the two countries have long been strained, but last year, when France supported Morocco’s claims against the western Sahara, it reached a new low when Algeria supported Polisario groups fighting for territorial independence.
Algiers responded to the slightest response by withdrawing the ambassador to Paris.
Three years ago, Algeria severed diplomatic ties with Morocco.
Following the court’s ruling on Wednesday, Sansal’s lawyers appealed to Algerian President Abdelmazid Tebuunu to show his writers “humanity.”
Sansal is well known for his anti-Islamist views and is an outspoken critic of the Algerian government.
His detractors say he is the far-right beloved man who softens their prejudices.
Far-right French leader Marine Le Penn calls Saintsal “a fighter for freedom and a brave opponent of Islamism.”
His age was previously reported as 75, but Galimado, his publisher, says he is actually 80 years old.
Sansal’s most famous works include satire about religious radicalism, which won the Grand Prix at the French Academy of France a decade ago.
His next novel, Vivre, was published in May, tells the story of a selection group of people chosen to colonize a new planet as Earth approaches the Apocalypse.
Additional Reports by Marcus Erbe
