Algerian court upholds five-year jail term for French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal

An Algerian court upheld on Tuesday a five-year prison sentence being served by French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal for undermining national unity, Ennahar TV said, prompting a call for clemency by France. Sansal, 80, had been living in France but was detained while visiting Algeria in November and sentenced in March after making statements to a French media outlet in which he endorsed Morocco's position that part of its territory was seized under French colonialism and annexed to Algeria.