French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal has been sentenced to five years in prison for undermining Algeria's territorial integrity.
Thursday's verdict comes after prosecutors at an Algiers court last week requested a 10-year prison sentence.
The 76-year-old writer, who has been at the centre of a diplomatic crisis between Algeria and France, was arrested in November at Algiers airport after comments made during an interview with a far-right French media outlet.
Sansal told the Frontières magazine that France had unfairly ceded Moroccan territory to Algeria during the colonial era – a statement that echoed a long-standing Moroccan claim and was seen by Algerian authorities as a challenge to national sovereignty.
Sansal's remarks, made in a politically sensitive context, landed him at the centre of a diplomatic standoff between Algeria and France.
His works remain available in Algeria despite his criticism of the government and of Islamists.
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French President Emmanuel Macron has dismissed the accusations against the author as "not serious", but expressed confidence in Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune's "clarity of vision" on the matter.
Macron has repeatedly called for the writer’s release on health grounds, noting that Sansal has cancer.
During his trial last week, Sansal said he had not foreseen the impact of his comments about Algeria's border with Morocco.
"I merely expressed an opinion," he told the court, according to the Algerian newspaper Echorouk. "There was no intent to harm Algeria. I did it in the name of freedom of expression".
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French support
The trial has sparked a wave of support from French intellectuals and officials, despite Sansal being relatively unknown in France before his arrest.
The case comes amid wider tensions between Algeria and its former colonial ruler.
Ties have been strained over migration issues and since Macron, in July 2023, recognised Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara – a disputed territory mostly controlled by Morocco but claimed by the Algeria-backed Polisario Front.
Algerian news site TSA wrote that the trial was "not just about the fate of one man but also the immediate future of relations" between Algeria and its former colonial ruler.
In a televised interview on Saturday, Tebboune said the case was "in good hands" and described Macron as his "sole point of reference" for restoring trust.
Algerian officials have blamed the French far right for stoking the dispute, accusing hardliners in France of favouring Morocco over Algeria.
