Two legal complaints have been filed in Algeria against Franco-Algerian author Kamel Daoud and his psychiatrist wife, accusing them of revealing and using a patient’s story in his novel “Houris,” which recently won the 2024 Goncourt Prize.
Lawyer Fatima Benbraham confirmed that the complaints were submitted in August, under the names of the “National Organization of Terrorism Victims” and directly on behalf of the victim. Saâda Arbane, a survivor of massacres during Algeria’s civil war in the 1990s, accused Daoud of publishing her personal story without consent.
The lawsuit alleges:
- Violation of medical confidentiality
- Defamation of terrorism victims
- Breach of the National Reconciliation Law
Algerian law prohibits publications about the period between 1992 and 2002. The complainants deliberately waited to file the lawsuit to avoid appearing to interfere with the author’s literary award nomination.