French-Algerian Author Boualem Sansal Sentenced to Five Years in Prison

French-Algerian Author Boualem Sansal Sentenced to Five Years in Prison
The French-Algerian author Boualem Sansal has received a five-year jail term in Algeria for allegedly compromising the nation's territorial integrity. Sansal was taken into custody in November of last year At Algiers airport following comments to a far-right French media outlet called Frontières about France unjustly transferring Moroccan land to Algeria, Sansal has primarily been hospitalized since his arrest due to a cancer diagnosis. Yesterday, at Dar El Beïda courthouse, the author's statement was publicly disclosed, indicating that they would be serving a five-year jail sentence along with a monetary penalty of 500,000 Algerian dinars (approximately €3,500). The prosecutors sought a decade-long imprisonment for the author, who was found guilty under Article 87 of Algeria’s criminal law for actions including sowing discord within the nation, defaming an official entity, destabilizing the country’s economic framework, and holding media materials and documents…