The Algerian regime has finally released the renowned writer Boualem Sansal, after months of blatant lies and repression.
The release was not an expression of justice or dignity. It came out of desperation, pressure, and political calculation.
It took just one official statement from the German president to force the exhausted Algerian authorities to free the man they had turned into a political hostage.
President Frank-Walter Steinmeier’s appeal for clemency on humanitarian grounds came in a message to Algerian authorities. The message subtly invokes President Tebboune’s own reliance on German hospitals. The German appeal was enough to break Algiers’ stubborn resistance and months of propaganda and a smearing campaign that described Sansal as a threat to national unity.
Sansal was released right after an official announcement. He was escorted to the airport under heavy security and boarded a private jet bound for Germany. This symbolic flight, far from being a gesture of honor, underscored the regime’s capitulation: the same power that had branded him a traitor now ensured his transfer in luxury, desperate to salvage its own image abroad.
Moral collapse
The regime actually capitulated to French calls for the release of the writer. But to save its face it chose to send him to a third country: Germany.
This outcome, while welcome, is a stark reminder of the regime’s moral collapse. Sansal was never a regular prisoner.
Sansal was arrested on November 16, 2024, after comments on the colonial nature of Algeria’s current borders including large swathes of territories amputated by French colonialism from Morocco. The mere mention of this historical fact cost him a five-year jail sentence.
Even prior to the cham trial, Tebboune himself vilified the writer calling him a “thief,” a “bastard,” and a man of “unknown identity.”
Now, suddenly he discovers in him a literary figure worthy of presidential mercy. The hypocrisy is staggering. President Tebboune, who postures as the guardian of a proud and sovereign Algeria, now bows to Berlin to secure his own medical treatment, and to Paris, which made Sansal’s release a prerequisite for resuming diplomatic dialogue.
Sansal’s release reflects the self-harming tactics of a regime in demise. Isolated after the Sahara debacle, abandoned even by allies like China and Russia, estranged from Madrid, and frozen out by Paris, the Algerian “System” is desperate for a diplomatic lifeline. Ironically, Sansal has become that lifeline.
