Overview
- The Algerian presidential office announced on Wednesday that President Abdelmajid Tebboune granted a pardon to Boualem Sansal.
- The decision responds to a humanitarian request from Germany’s President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who asked for Sansal’s release to allow treatment in Germany.
- Steinmeier cited Sansal’s advanced age and fragile health, and reports say the writer has cancer.
- Sansal was arrested in November 2024 after an interview about the Morocco–Algeria border and Western Sahara, and he received a five-year sentence in March for allegedly endangering national unity.
- France’s President Emmanuel Macron had earlier demanded Sansal’s release, accusing Algeria of detaining him arbitrarily.