Algerian court sentences Kamel Daoud and wife to five years

An Algerian court sentenced writer Kamel Daoud and his wife, psychiatrist Aïcha Dahdouh, to five years in prison in absentia on November 10.

The case is based on a complaint by Saâda Arbane, an Algerian woman who says Daoud used details of her life in his novel Houris without her permission.

Arbane says only Dahdouh, who had been her psychotherapist, could have known details of her experience; Daoud and Dahdouh deny wrongdoing.

The court also ordered each to pay a fine of 300,000 dinars and confirmed an international arrest warrant.

The couple live in France, and the sentence has no effect while Daoud remains outside Algeria.

The case raises questions about privacy and medical confidentiality, as well as how personal experiences can be used in fiction.

Daoud was also sentenced in absentia to three years in prison in a separate case related to Houris.