Franco-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal returned to France on Tuesday after a year in detention in Algeria, and was welcomed by French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysée Palace.
Sansal, 81, travelled to France from Germany where he had been receiving medical treatment, following his release last week after talks between Algiers and Berlin.
His detention was seen by supporters as a consequence of the political row between Algeria and France over sovereignty of the Western Sahara, in which Paris backs the claim of Algeria's North African rival Morocco.
In October 2024, Sansal told a far-right French media outlet that France had unjustly transferred Moroccan territory to Algeria during the 1830-1962 colonial period.
Algeria handed Sansal a five-year jail term in March on charges of undermining its territorial integrity after arresting him in November last year on arrival from France.
Algeria frees French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal for transfer to Germany
Upon arriving in France, Sansal was welcomed by President Macron in a meeting at the Elysée Palace, the French presidency said.
Macron, it said, is "delighted at the release of Boualem Sansal, a great writer whose dignity, moral strength and courage have been exemplary".
A committee of supporters who campaigned for Sansal's release said in a statement they welcomed "with deep emotion the return to France of our friend and compatriot". It added: "It will now be up to the writer to choose the time and fashion in which he wishes to express himself."
Algeria's President Abdelmadjid Tebboune pardoned Sansal last week after German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier urged a "humanitarian gesture" due to his fragile health.
Imprisoned sports journalist
Prominent French sports journalist Christophe Gleizes remains in an Algerian prison, sentenced to seven years for "glorifying terrorism" for having sought to interview an outlawed group.
Algeria sentences French sports journalist to seven years behind bars
France is "fervently hoping" for the release of Gleizes and "working towards it", the French presidency said. Sansal's support committee too urged the "immediate release" of Gleizes.
French-Algerian relations have been strained by numerous political disputes over recent years. Analysts say both sides are yet to overcome the mutual recriminations that are a legacy of the 1954-1962 war that brought Algeria its independence, following more than a century of French colonisation.
(with AFP)
