{"id":15124,"date":"2025-11-12T16:23:44","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T14:23:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/algerian-president-pardons-writer-boualem-sansal-after-german-request\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:27:27","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:27:27","slug":"algerian-president-pardons-writer-boualem-sansal-after-german-request","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/algerian-president-pardons-writer-boualem-sansal-after-german-request\/","title":{"rendered":"Algerian President pardons writer, Boualem Sansal after German request"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Algerian authorities arrested Sansal a year ago and a court sentenced him in March to five years in jail for undermining national unity. Sansal, 81, who has long been a critic of Algerian authorities and had been living in France, denied the charge against him, saying he never intended to offend Algeria or state institutions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">\nThe Algerian presidency said in a statement that Tebboune &#8220;responded positively&#8221; to Steinmeier&#8217;s appeal, which he described as &#8220;noteworthy for its humanitarian nature and motives&#8221;.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Tebboune previously described Sansal as an &#8220;imposter&#8221;.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">\nGermany will take responsibility for Sansal&#8217;s transfer and medical treatment, the presidency statement said. French media have reported that Sansal has cancer. It was not immediately clear why Germany had intervened in the case but Steinmeier&#8217;s appeal came after calls by other writers, French President Emmanuel Macron, and human rights groups for Sansal&#8217;s release.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">\nThe Sansal case deepened the diplomatic rift between Algeria and France, its former colonial master. Ties between Paris and Algiers deteriorated sharply after France recognised Morocco&#8217;s sovereignty over the disputed territory of Western Sahara.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":15125,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-15124","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"\u00a0Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has granted a pardon to French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal following a request from German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the Algerian presidency said on Wednesday","published_date":"2025-11-12 00:00:00","news_description":"\u00a0Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has granted a pardon to French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal following a request from German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the Algerian presidency said on Wednesday","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/15124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/15124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19499,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/15124\/revisions\/19499"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=15124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}