Agency Report –
Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune on Wednesday issued a pardon for imprisoned French-Algerian author Boualem Sansal on humanitarian grounds, following a request by the German president.
Tebboune decided to “respond positively” to the proposal sent by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier earlier this week.
In view of Sansal’s advanced age and fragile health, Steinmeier suggested that the author be allowed to leave Algeria for Germany and offered to provide him with medical care.
The Algerian presidency said in a statement that Germany will be responsible for transporting Sansal and for his medical treatment.
Sansal, who won the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade in 2011, was arrested in mid-November last year upon landing in Algiers.
In March, he was sentenced to five years in prison for undermining national unity and security.
The charges stem from an interview in which he stated that Morocco’s national borders had been altered in Algeria’s favour during the French colonial era.
Sansal’s conviction earlier this year was met with sharp criticism in France.
