German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier appealed to Algeria to release the 81-year-old writer, who is suffering from prostate cancer, according to his family. Germany has also promised to take responsibility for both his transfer and medical treatment.
Sansal, who writes in French and has received several international literary awards, was arrested in Algiers last November and sentenced to five years in prison after saying in an interview that France had wrongly ceded Moroccan territory to Algeria.
According to Steinmeier's spokesperson, he had landed in Berlin on Wednesday evening and was on his way to hospital.
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