He relentlessly hurled insults at him to justify his imprisonment, a hostage-taking disguised as a trial, and, incidentally, a five-year prison sentence. Today, he is reclassified as a writer, elderly and ill, and therefore eligible for presidential clemency. This is, once again, the dramatic reversal that Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has just performed regarding the renowned Franco-Algerian novelist and essayist Boualem Sansal, arbitrarily arrested in Algiers on November 16, 2024, and sentenced on appeal in July to five years in prison for, among other things, declaring that Algeria had inherited, under French colonization, territories that had previously belonged to Morocco.

The announcement comes at a time when the Algerian regime is at its lowest point, after a very long and inexorable saga of diplomatic failures, the final blow of which was the adoption, on October 31st, by the Security Council, the executive body of the United Nations, of a resolution enshrining the autonomy plan as the solution to the Western Sahara conflict. This resolution primarily revealed to the world the complete power vacuum that the neighboring regime has managed to create around itself. Even its former patrons, China and Russia, once quick to support it, have abandoned it, preferring to abstain. The blow is so severe that, reeling, the Algerian regime has been scrambling ever since to make up for lost time and alliances, begging for even a nod of approval to show that it is still, however slightly, acceptable.

Although a small possibility, one of the ways out of the crisis that the System is now being touted is the possible release of the writer. The process is convoluted, but the regime presents it as follows. On Monday, November 10, the Algerian presidency hastily published an announcement stating that President Abdelmadjid Tebboune had received a request from the President of the Federal Republic of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, for a humanitarian gesture consisting of pardoning the writer Boualem Sansal, imprisoned for a year.

APS and all Algerian media outlets in the regime's pocket immediately relayed the news. This has opened up the prospect of the imminent release of the 76-year-old writer. A happy ending would thus be an act of ultimate generosity from a magnanimous president, paving the way for a resumption of dialogue between Algiers and Paris, given that Sansal is also a French citizen and his hostage-taking is at the heart of the crisis between the two capitals. Except that this is completely false, and if the Algerian regime is playing the humanitarian card, it is out of necessity, coercion, and a clear case of opportunism.

Chronologically, the Algerian presidential announcement was preceded by a few hours by what appears to be a German fait accompli, certainly coordinated with its French ally. Earlier that same Monday, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier issued a statement urging his counterpart Tebboune to make a humanitarian gesture, requesting the release of Boualem Sansal and also proposing that Boualem be transferred to Germany to receive medical treatment (...) given his advanced age (...) and fragile health.

Frank-Walter Steinmeier also suggests that Boualem Sansal be transferred to Germany to receive medical treatment. → https://t.co/yaEm9LlAiN — Le Figaro (@Le_Figaro) November 10, 2025

More than a request, it's a demand. A condition. And for good reason: President Tebboune, himself seriously ill, must travel to Germany this November for further medical examinations. Germany is the country the Algerian head of state goes to for treatment. It's where he spent three months, from October to the end of December 2020, for a lengthy hospitalization, officially after contracting Covid-19. It's where he will return in January 2021 for surgery. And it's where he has gone regularly since then for follow-up care and treatment. He also made a private trip to Germany in July 2023, and another as recently as last August, for the same medical reasons. Algerian sources well-versed in presidential matters claim that Tebboune was scheduled to travel there again on November 9th, but that the trip was postponed.

Thief, identity unknown, bastard

It was then, the following day, that the German presidency issued its statement. The message was clear: if the Algerian president wanted to continue benefiting from the German healthcare system, he would first have to release Boualem Sansal. And, ideally, give him a place of honor on the presidential plane so that the writer could also be hospitalized in Germany. It was carefully worded, but it must still sting."Such a gesture would be an expression of humanitarianism and a long-term political vision. It would reflect my long-standing personal relationship with President Tebboune and the good relations between our two countries," wrote the German president. In other words: no Sansal release, no supposed friendship.

By adopting the German demand, Tebboune is demonstrating an opportunism not without a touch of cunning. Frank-Walter Steinmeier's appeal comes at a perfect time, just as Algiers is making overtures to Paris. On Thursday, the French Foreign Minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, emphasized that France was conducting a demanding dialogue with Algiers to secure the release of Boualem Sansal. A dialogue in which Berlin appears to be a key player in persuasion.

Boualem Sansal and Christophe Gleizes detained in Algeria: "We are continuing our work to obtain their unconditional and immediate release"@jnbarrot, Minister of Foreign Affairs, guest of @ThomasSotto on #RTLMatin — RTL France (@RTLFrance)

November 5, 2025

The most distressing thing is that while Abdelmadjid Tebboune swore, by all the saints and martyrs, that he would never grant a release request made in France by any means possible, in the name of Algeria's supreme interests and its eternal greatness, he now capitulates for petty personal reasons. And to hell with the martyrs.

We remember it well: on Sunday, December 29, during a lengthy speech before both houses of Parliament, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune addressed the situation of writer Boualem Sansal… only to literally insult him and call him every name under the sun. For Abdelmadjid Tebboune, Sansal is a thief, of unknown identity, and a bastard. Yes, you read that right. That's how a world-renowned writer is publicly described, on camera, by the head of the Algerian executive branch. But that was then.

Tebboune in drama queen mode: live tears to elicit empathy from a people angry at the military regime 🇩🇿. Between low-level conspiracy theories and attacks against Boualem Sansal (whom he had imprisoned), he pushes the ridiculous to the point of insulting him as a"bastard".

— Ali KETTANI 𝕏 (@Alikettanii) December 29, 2024

It's unclear by what magic the bastard was reclassified, in the Algerian presidency's communiqué, as a writer. Better still: he once again becomes a Franco-Algerian citizen and a recipient of the Peace Prize from the Union of German Writers. Clearly, the care of the head of state and the urgent need to reconcile with Paris justify a complete about-face. After all, Tebboune and the entire Algerian regime know how to do this kind of thing. Because of the Moroccan Sahara, they moved heaven and earth for two years against Spain only to literally disappear. And they brandished all sorts of threats against France, only to end up celebrating a perfectly conventional telegraphic message from President Emmanuel Macron on November 1st, the anniversary of the Revolution. A 27-word message brandished like a sacred text in all Algerian media.

It is therefore understandable that the regime in Algiers is in a state of absolute urgency to break its isolation. The scandal of this sudden reversal and the indignation of the Algerian elites are irrelevant. Crushed, the Algerian people will wait. Forever.