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Prosecutor Seeks 10-Year Sentence in Boualem Sansal’s Appeal

A verdict set for July 1 could decide whether an 80-year-old, cancer-stricken author remains jailed, with significant effects on already tense France-Algeria relations.

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Une affiche de soutien à Boualem Sansal sur la façade de la Mairie du 5ème arrondissement de Paris. L’écrivain, emprisonné en Algérie depuis plus de 200 jours, va être jugé en appel mardi 24 juin.
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L’écrivain algérien Boualem Sansal à Paris, le 4 septembre 2015.

Overview

  • On June 24, the prosecutor sought 10 years in prison during Sansal’s appeal, up from his initial five-year sentence.
  • The hearing concluded without his French lawyer, who was unable to attend after visa applications were refused.
  • Sansal, aged 80 and diagnosed with prostate cancer, has been held since November following comments on Algeria’s colonial-era borders.
  • He was first convicted in March and fined 500,000 dinars for “endangering national unity” after remarks about Morocco’s former territory.
  • The July 1 verdict could either ease or exacerbate already strained diplomatic relations between Paris and Algiers.