History is not a crime — unless you’re in Algeria

On November 16, 2024, acclaimed Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, 80, was arrested upon arrival at Algiers airport from Paris. He has not been seen since. 

According to reports, agents from Algeria’s General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI) detained him over a recent interview in which he recalled a historical fact: that parts of present-day Algeria — including Tlemcen, Oran, and Mascara — were once part of the Moroccan kingdom.

The regime has seized on this comment as a pretext to charge Sansal with treason, undermining national unity, and allegedly collaborating with so-called foreign enemies — French, Moroccan, Zionist — all labels frequently used by Algiers to distract from the country’s internal crises.

We will not abandon him. Literature is, by its very nature, a territory of intellectual freedom. His jailers have no idea how powerful fiction can be when it is carried by a voice like his.

A Collective Response from Writers and Thinkers

In response to Sansal’s imprisonment, a powerful literary and intellectual defense has taken shape. Sixty prominent figures — writers, philosophers, artists, and public intellectuals — have contributed to a newly released volume titled “Pour Boualem Sansal” (For Boualem Sansal), edited by Pascal Bruckner and Michel Gad Wolkowicz, and published by Éditions David Reinhard in France.

Each contributor defends, in their own voice, the honor, courage, and creative genius of a man now facing one of the most severe forms of political repression in Algeria.

More Than a Political Case — A Civilizational Issue

The arrest of Boualem Sansal is not simply a national affair. It raises a fundamental, universal question: can freedom of thought survive in a society ruled by fear, censorship, and ideological conformity?

Sansal’s life and work embody resistance — not through violence, but through truth, intellect, and language. For decades, he has written courageously about the dangers of extremism, the corruption of political systems, and the need for secularism in the Arab world. Now, for speaking again, he is being silenced.

But as the collective behind this book insists: you can imprison a man, not his voice.

This case calls on all defenders of free expression to speak out. Boualem Sansal may be courageous — or reckless, daring, or defiant. 

But he is also necessary. He is one of those rare individuals who says no when the world around him settles for yes.

His words, his defiance, and his integrity echo far beyond the prison walls. And if the regime hoped to silence him, they may have only amplified his voice.