Overview

• Boualem Sansal officially waived his right to cassation on July 5, making his conviction for ‘harming national unity’ under Article 87 bis irreversible
• Presidential decrees published on July 4 excluded those convicted of undermining national unity from the annual Independence Day amnesty, barring Sansal from release
• The French foreign ministry condemned the decision as “incomprehensible and unjustified” and is pursuing diplomatic démarches for an individual humanitarian pardon
• Sansal’s definitive sentence has intensified a diplomatic rupture between France and Algeria that dates back to Paris’s 2024 recognition of Moroccan autonomy over Western Sahara
• Advocacy groups and French officials warn that Algeria’s broad security laws and refusal to pardon prominent critics reflect a tightening crackdown on dissent