Algerian writer Boualem Sansal poses at his home in Boumerdes, near Algiers, on August 17, 2015. FAROUK BATICHE / AFP
French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal on Tuesday, November 18, returned to France after a year-long imprisonment in Algeria that further strained troubled ties between Paris and its former colony, supporters and the French presidency said. Sansal, 81, traveled to France from Germany, where he had been receiving medical treatment following his release last week brokered in talks between Algiers and Berlin.
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His novels warning of the risks of creeping authoritarianism, but also Islamisation, have made him a favorite on the right in France but deeply unpopular with the authorities in his country of birth. Upon arriving in France, Sansal was welcomed by President Emmanuel Macron in a meeting at the Elysée Palace, the French presidency said.
Macron, it said, is "delighted at the release of Mr Sansal, a great writer whose dignity, moral strength and courage have been exemplary." His committee of supporters who campaigned for his release said in a statement they welcomed "with deep emotion the return to France of our friend and compatriot." The group added, "It will now be up to the writer to choose the time and fashion in which he wishes to express himself."
