Algeria sentences Kamel Daoud to 3 years over Goncourt-winning novel

Kamel Daoud announced Wednesday that an Algerian court sentenced him to three years in prison and a fine for his novel “Houris,” winner of the 2024 Prix Goncourt.lemonde
The conviction, under Algeria’s Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation, stems from the book’s depiction of the 1990s civil war that killed an estimated 200,000 people.apnews
Daoud, who lives in France and was tried in absentia, is also subject to two international arrest warrants that Interpol has declined to honor, according to DW.dw

Algeria Sentences Author Kamel Daoud to Three Years in Prison for Goncourt-Winning Novel

French-Algerian writer Kamel Daoud announced on Wednesday that an Algerian court has sentenced him to three years in prison and fined him 5 million Algerian dinars — roughly $38,000 — for his novel “Houris,” winner of France’s most prestigious literary prize.lemonde

Daoud, who lives in France, shared the news on X, writing that the verdict from his April 7 trial was delivered on April 21. “Ten years of war, nearly 200,000 dead by estimates, thousands of terrorists amnestied… And a single culprit: a writer,” he wrote.x

A Novel That Broke Algeria’s Silence

“Houris,” published in 2024 by Gallimard, tells the story of a young woman whose throat was slashed during a massacre by Islamist militants in Algeria’s civil war of the 1990s — a conflict known as the “dark decade” that claimed an estimated 200,000 lives. The book won the Prix Goncourt in November 2024, making Daoud the first Algerian-born author to receive the honor.bbc

The novel has been banned in Algeria, where a 2005 law known as the Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation prohibits public discussion of the civil war. Daoud said he was convicted under that same charter. The trial was held in the city of Oran on April 7 and conducted in absentia — Daoud could not be represented by a lawyer and has been unable to obtain the text of his sentence.apnews

A Pattern of Repression

According to Le Monde, the trial was held “on the sly,” and the verdict was delayed to avoid coinciding with Pope Francis’s visit to Algeria from April 13 to 15. Daoud is also the subject of two international arrest warrants issued by Algerian authorities in May 2025, though Interpol has declined to honor them.dw

The sentencing follows Algeria’s conviction last year of another French-Algerian author, Boualem Sansal, who was sentenced to five years in prison under anti-terrorism laws for comments about Algeria’s colonial-era borders. Sansal, who was 76 and diagnosed with cancer, was later released on a humanitarian pardon.bastillepost

Speaking to Le Monde, Daoud confirmed that the sentence stemmed from a complaint filed by Algeria’s National Organization of Victims of Terrorism. He also faces a separate legal proceeding in France related to a privacy complaint, and a second trial in Oran over allegations from an Algerian woman named Saâda Arbane.lemonde