The News
French President Emmanuel Macron called for the release of an award-winning French Algerian writer jailed under controversial anti-terrorism laws.
Boualem Sansal was imprisoned in Algeria for five years for “undermining national unity” after saying in an interview that France had drawn the borders between Algeria and Morocco in the former’s favor.
The subject is a vexed one in Algiers after France recognized Morocco’s sovereignty over a disputed region of the Sahara Desert last summer: Relations between Algeria and its former colonial ruler worsened after Algeria refused to take deportees from France. The 76-year-old reportedly has cancer, and Macron called on authorities to have the “good sense and humanity” to “give him back his freedom.”