Boualem Sansal was arrested because of Morocco

Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune spoke out for the first time on the Boualem Sansal affair, named after the Franco-Algerian writer imprisoned in Algeria since November for having taken up Morocco’s position according to which the territory of the kingdom would have been truncated under French colonization for the benefit of its eastern neighbor.

In a “speech to the nation” delivered before both houses of Parliament on Sunday, Tebboune described Boualem Sansal as an “imposter” sent by France. “You send an impostor who does not know his identity, does not know his father and comes to say that half of Algeria belongs to another state,” he declared, in an extract from this official speech.