The two daughters of the Franco-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, sentenced to five years in prison, informed the France-Presse (AFP) agency of their “Feeling of total helplessness”from the Czech Republic, where they live, to obtain the release of their father. Met at the opening of the Prague Book Fair, Nawal, 53, and Sabeha, 50, received, Thursday, May 15, a prize for the promotion of freedom of expression awarded to their father.
“It is sad that people are imprisoned for having freely expressed their opinion and, unfortunately, our father is one of these people”said the elder after receiving the distinction. “God only knows in which mental state he is”because he is “Isolated, without any information”she deplored to AFP. “The only person allowed to visit him is probably his wife, but we know nothing”she added.
While the dissident, suffering from cancer, follows “Currently a radiotherapy treatment”his daughters exchanged for the last time by email with him in 2023 and have no news, apart from the press clippings made by the Czech Embassy in Algiers. They sent an open letter to the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and wrote to his Algerian counterpart, Abdelmadjid Tebboune. “We also wrote to my father. But we did not receive an answer, nothing happened ”explains Nawal. Lost in the face of the meanders of the Algerian system, she plans to contact organizations like Amnesty International to accentuate pressure.
“A real patriot”
Born in Algeria, the daughters of Boualem Sansal lived in Czechoslovakia, the country of their mother, after the separation, in their early childhood, of their parents, who had met in the context of a university exchange. The communist regime was watching them, like all people with family abroad, and, if they have spent their vacation in Algiers every year, Nawal has not returned there since the age of 20 and has not seen his father since. Her sister and she always live near Prague.
Arrested in mid-November at Algiers airport, the 80-year-old writer was sentenced to the end of March to five years in prison to, among other things, affected the integrity of the Algerian territory. He is criticized for having taken over the position of Morocco, according to which the territory of this country was tried under French colonization for the benefit of Algeria. He called on. “I believe that my father is a pawn or a currency of exchange, a kind of hostage, because they are probably trying to obtain the release of certain terrorists condemned in France”detailed Nawal, his sister Sabeha greeting in him “A real patriot”.
Algeria and France have been going through a diplomatic crisis marked in recent days since last summer by a new series of exhaustion of civil servants on both sides last summer. All cooperation is frozen. Atheist, Boualem Sansal is critical of a power which, according to him, has been maintained for too long against the will of the Algerians. “He completely controls the country and has all means”he estimated in Le Figaro in 2019.
Source: Lemonde