Overview

• President Abdelmadjid Tebboune refused to pardon Sansal on Algeria’s Independence Day, ensuring he remains subject to a five-year prison term.
• At his appeal hearing, prosecutors sought a ten-year sentence for “undermining territorial integrity,” but judges upheld the original five-year term.
• The writer, who gained French citizenship in 2024, has been denied access to his French-appointed attorney and has limited legal representation while detained.
• Hundreds of writers, translators and cultural figures gathered at Leipzig’s Literaturhaus on July 7 to deliver a collective appeal for his release.
• His incarceration has heightened diplomatic strain between Algeria and France and drawn criticism over the use of vague national security laws against intellectual dissent.