The Algerian court in Oran sentenced writer Kamal Daoud to three years in prison and a fine, in absentia, on the grounds of his novel “Nymphs,” which won the French Goncourt Prize for the year 2024. This came in a message published by the French-Algerian writer on Wednesday on the X platform.

Published on: 04/22/2026 - 13:55 Last updated: 04/22/2026 - 15:11

The Algerian court of Flausnes in Oran sentenced the writer Kamal Daoud to three years in prison and a fine of 5 million dinars, in absentia, in relation to his novel “Nymphs,” which won the French Goncourt Prize for the year 2024. According to what the French-Algerian writer announced Wednesday in a message on the X platform.

He wrote on the X platform, “I was sentenced to three effective years in prison and a fine of five million Algerian dinars,” or about $38,000.

The ruling came as a result of a complaint filed by His Excellency Orban, accusing him of exploiting her life story as a victim of terrorism, by relying on her medical file that was in his wife’s possession during her work at Oran Hospital.

Last November, an Algerian court accepted a first complaint against the writer and his wife, a psychiatrist, on the grounds that they revealed and used the story of a survivor of a massacre during the Black Decade in his novel “Nymphs.”

Algerian law prohibits any work dealing with the black decade between 1992 and 2002. Kamal Daoud is also being pursued under two international arrest warrants issued by Algeria in May 2025.

The novel is also subject to proceedings before the French judiciary on charges of violating private life.

France 24

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