A court in Algeria on Tuesday upheld Franco-Algerian author Boualem Sansal's five-year prison sentence in a case that has raised alarm over freedom of expression in Algeria and pushed tensions with France to the brink.
Prosecutors at an appeal hearing last week requested the maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. The “2084: The End of the World” author was charged in March under Algeria’s anti-terrorism laws and convicted of “undermining national unity,” receiving his initial five-year sentence then.
