(Source : AFP)
French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday urged Algerian counterpart Abdelmadjid Tebboune to show “mercy and humanity” toward a jailed French-Algerian writer, Boualem Sansal, the Elysee palace said in a statement.
Macron made the plea during a “long, frank and friendly” phone call covering bilateral ties and “tensions that have accumulated over recent months,” it said.
Macron has repeatedly called for Algeria to release Sansal, citing his fragile state of health due to cancer.
The author was sentenced last Thursday to five years in prison after an interview he gave to a French far-right media outlet was deemed to undermine Algeria’s territorial integrity.
Macron “called for a gesture of mercy and humanity toward Mr.Boualem Sansal, given the age and state of health of the writer,” the Elysee statement said.
According to his French publisher, Sansal is 80 years old.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot will visit Algiers on Sunday, at the invitation of the Algerian government, to plan ways to shore up ties, it said.
Sansal’s conviction and sentence further frayed ties between France and Algeria, already strained by migration issues and Macron’s recognition last year of Moroccan sovereignty over the disputed territory of Western Sahara, which is claimed by the Algeria-backed pro-independence Polisario Front.
Sansal, known for his criticism of Algerian authorities as well of Islamists, found himself in the dock for saying in the interview that colonial-era France unfairly ceded Moroccan territory to Algeria.