Boualem Sansal in 2011 at Frankfurter Buchmesse for his news conference as winner of that year’s Peace Prize of the German Book Trade. Image: FBM, Fernando Baptista
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
‘No Writer Should Be Imprisoned Because of His Opinion’
The 10th of December has been observed as Human Rights Day annually since 1950, commemorating the 1948 adoption by the United Nations General Assembly of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Today, on Human Rights Day 2024, the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels, Germany’s publishers and booksellers association, has issued an international appeal for the immediate release by the Algerian authorities of the author, engineer, and economist Boualem Sansal. Our article is here on the detention of Sansal, 75, at the Algiers airport.
The Human Rights Day appeal being made today by the Börsenverein is joined by Sansal’s publisher Merlin Verlag and by the cultural magazine Perlentaucher.
The campaign to see Sansal released has been joined by 11 winners of the German book trade’s Peace Prize, five Nobel Prize winners, and many others, including the International Publishers Association (IPA), leading this widening appeal. The Algerian regime “accuses Sansal of having questioned the Algerian nation’s right to exist and its historical borders, as France 24 reported on November 23,” the Börsenverein’s media messaging says.
The key wording of today’s appeal reads, “Boualem Sansal is facing years in prison for expressing an opinion on Algerian history. Sansal is an Algerian and French citizen, and therefore a European. We demand solidarity with Boualem Sansal. There is only one thing that can be said to the Algerian government: No writer should be imprisoned because of his opinion. We demand his immediate release.”
In making this new public-participation appeal, the Börsenverein writes that it, Merlin Verlag, and Perlentaucher “support the efforts of the German and French governments to obtain clarification from the Algerian government about Boualem Sansal’s whereabouts.
“The regime accuses him of having questioned the ‘right of the Algerian nation to exist’ and its historical borders and is charging him under Article 87-bis of the Algerian penal code. According to information from his lawyer, there will be a court hearing tomorrow (December 11), at which the peace prize winner’s appeal will be heard.
“His French lawyer, meanwhile, has been denied entry to Algeria.”
A Growing Petition
A petition form now is active on the Börsenverein site, and those signing agree that their names will appear on the German Peace Prize site.
The form is also linked from the Peace Prize site here. And below, you’ll find a poster that’s being made available to bookstores, libraries, and other institutions for display. You can download a copy of this poster here. The campaign is hashtagged #FreeSansal.
In the appeal’s copy about Sansal, the appeal writes:
“The trained engineer and economist Boualem Sansal, who worked as a high-ranking official in the Algerian Ministry of Industry until his dismissal in 2003, began writing in the mid-1990s.
“As a writer, he takes a stand, gets involved, and criticizes, even when it puts him in great danger. In his literary debut, The Oath of the Barbarians (1999), Sansal provides an impressive testimony of his country, reporting on the political, social, and moral grievances, the everyday violence of the Islamists, and the subtle intimidation of the government against dissidents. Nevertheless, Boualem Sansal, now 75 years old, still lives in Algeria today.
“Years ago, Sansal drew the attention of his European readers to the dangers of political Islam, the human tragedies of migration movements and the dangers of totalitarian developments in the world, using literature and at many public events. Boualem Sansal has received many awards, including the Grand Prize of the Académie française.
“In Germany, Boualem Sansal was awarded the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade in 2011 for his efforts to promote peaceful dialogue between cultures.”
The #FreeSansal effort is using this poster to ask for signatures in its appeal to the Algerian government. Image: Börsenverein
More on the German market is here, more on the work of the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels is here, and more on the freedom to write, read, and publish is here.
Publishing Perspectives is the International Publishers Association’s world media partner.
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