Overview
- Germany's presidential office said Frank-Walter Steinmeier asked Abdelmadjid Tebboune to pardon Sansal and allow his evacuation to Germany for medical care.
- Sansal, 76, a cancer patient and 2011 Peace Prize laureate of the German book trade, holds Algerian and French citizenship.
- An appeals court in July upheld a five-year prison term and a fine after roughly a year of detention.
- Prosecutors accused him of endangering national security with interview remarks in Paris about the Morocco–Algeria border, while he maintains all statements were made in France as a Frenchman.
- Algeria has not publicly responded to the request, and the case unfolds within strained Franco‑Algerian ties since Paris endorsed Morocco's Western Sahara position, with President Emmanuel Macron already urging Sansal's release.