CKCU Literary News
Wednesday January 1st, 2025 with Friederike KNABE & Hans G. RUPRECHT
Special New Year's broadcast / Pour la libération immédiate de BOUALEM SANSAL, écrivain algérien et citoyen français, arrêté á Alger en novembre 2024 et toujours retenu en captivité.

"Freedom for Boualem Sansal! 27.11.2024 . Boualem Sansal, winner of the German Book Trade Peace Prize in 2011, faces years in prison for expressing an opinion on Algerian history. Sansal is an Algerian and French citizen, and therefore a European. We, German and international writers and journalists and representatives of cultural organizations, 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! We support the efforts of Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock to obtain clarification about Sansal's situation. UPDATE: Boualem Sansal's request for release has been rejected by the Algerian judiciary, Le Figaro learned. Boualem Sansal will remain in prison. (Updated December 11, 2024) The Algerian writer Boualem Sansal disappeared for days. Yesterday he was brought before a court in Algiers. It is not yet clear whether he has independent legal representation. He is to be prosecuted for statements on Algerian history - according to Algerian law, he could face draconian punishments for this. A writer should go to prison for his opinion. Boualem Sansal is a staunch critic of the Algerian regime and Islamism . He is not afraid to denounce an "official" Islam that has not managed to take any action against Islamism in either Muslim or Western countries. You don't have to agree with him. But if you want to discuss things, you ca n't let your counterpart be stolen . According to RTL , Sansal's French lawyer François Zimeray fears that Sansal could be accused of espionage after statements that provoke Algerian nationalism and be sent to prison for a long time after an arbitrary trial. Sansal is an Algerian and French citizen, and therefore a European. We, German and international writers and journalists and representatives of cultural organizations, 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 opinions. We demand his immediate release ! We support Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and her French colleague Jean-Noël Barrot in their efforts to obtain clarification from the Algerian government about Boualem Sansal's whereabouts and to inform the German and European public about the Algerian government's response. Sansal needs independent legal counsel and access to family, friends and representatives of the French embassy. Anyone who "makes Boualem Sansal disappear", as his colleague and friend Kamel Daoud put it, is damaging the very possibility of debate at a time of extreme polarization . Such a policy aims to destroy democracy, including in Europe. If democracies do not stand up against such a policy, they are lost. Svetlana Alexievich (Peace Prize winner 2013, Nobel Prize for Literature 2015) Anne Applebaum (Peace Prize winner 2024) Aleida Assmann (Peace Prize winner 2018) Margaret Atwood (Peace Prize winner 2017) Seyla Benhabib (Adorno Prize 2024, Peace Prize laudator for Carolin Emcke 2016) Klaus Brinkbäumer (Member of the Peace Prize Foundation Board) Carolin Emcke (Peace Prize winner 2016) Raphael Gross (Member of the Peace Prize Foundation Board) David Grossman (Peace Prize winner 2010) Elfriede Jelinek (Nobel Prize for Literature 2004) Daniel Kehlmann (Peace Prize laudator for Salman Rushdie 2023) Navid Kermani (Peace Prize winner 2015) Claus Leggewie (political scientist) Jo Lendle (publisher Carl Hanser Verlag and member of the Peace Prize Foundation Board) Wolf Lepenies (Peace Prize winner 2006) Liao Yiwu (Peace Prize winner 2012) Ethel Matala de Mazza (member of the Peace Prize Foundation Board) Katharina E. Meyer (publisher of Boualem Sansal, Merlin Verlag) Norbert Miller (Peace Prize laudator for Navid Kermani 2015) Herta Müller (Nobel Prize for Literature 2009) Michael Naumann (former Minister of State for Culture and Media and Peace Prize laudator for Péter Esterházy 2004) Orhan Pamuk (Peace Prize winner 2005, Nobel Prize for Literature 2006) Salman Rushdie (Peace Prize winner 2023) Joachim Sartorius (Peace Prize laudator for Orhan Pamuk 2005) Irina Scherbakowa (Nobel Peace Prize winner 2022 for Memorial and Peace Prize laudator for Anne Applebaum 2024) Karl Schlögel (Peace Prize laudator for Claudio Magris 2009 and Svetlana Alexijewitsch 2013) Karin Schmidt-Friderichs (Chairman of the Stock Exchange Association and member of the Peace Prize Foundation Board) Martin Schulz (former President of the European Parliament, Peace Prize laudator for Jaron Lanier 2014) Thierry Chervel ( Pearl Diver ) Eva Quistorp (politician) Martin Schult (Stock Exchange Association)" Source https://www.friedenspreis-des-deutschen-buchhandels.de/freiheit-fuer-boualem-sansal