Overview
- Frank-Walter Steinmeier asked President Abdelmadjid Tebboune to grant Boualem Sansal a pardon and allow him to leave Algeria.
- He offered to facilitate Sansal’s medical evacuation and treatment in Germany based on concerns about the writer’s health.
- Sansal was arrested in November 2024 in Algiers after comments in a Paris interview about the Morocco–Algeria border and was later sentenced to five years in prison on security-related charges.
- Emmanuel Macron has previously demanded Sansal’s release and accused Algeria of arbitrary detention, with relations strained since France recognized Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara in 2024.
- The 2011 Peace Prize of the German Book Trade laureate remains detained, and Algeria has not announced a response to the German request.