Algeria: French sportswriter sentenced to 7 years for ‘glorifying terrorism’

A French reporter has been sentenced to 7 years in prison in Algeria over an interview with a soccer official accused of ties to a banned separatist movement, as reported by AP News on June 30th. 

Christophe Gleizes, a 36-year-old freelance sportswriter, was arrested and placed under judicial supervision more than a year ago for entering Algeria without a proper visa, “glorifying terrorism”, and “possessing propaganda publications harmful to the national interest”, Reporters Without Borders said in a statement on June 29th.

He was tried and convicted, although prosecutors have not publicly announced the charges and Algerian officials have not commented on the case.

Thibaut Bruttin, the director general of Reporters Without Borders, called the Algerian authorities’ decision to hold Gleizes for 13 months before sentencing an example of “absurd judicial control” and called the 7-year sentence “nonsensical.” The press freedom group said Gleizes planned to appeal the sentences on Monday.

The charges against Gleizes, the group said, stemmed from contact he had with the head of the soccer club, JS Kabylie, who was also a member of a political movement that Algeria designated as a terrorist group 4 years ago. 

Gleizes had gone to Algeria last year to report on the team, whose football successes are deeply enmeshed in the movement to win cultural recognition for Algeria’s Amazigh minority in the mountainous Kabylia region. The region has for decades been an epicenter of rebellion in Algeria, and in recent years authorities have clamped down on the Movement for the Self-Determination of Kabylia, a separatist group whose leader has been sentenced to death in absentia for “attacking national unity.”

The French journalist’s sentence comes as relations between France and Algeria reach new levels of hostility. The two countries are sparring over migration, extradition, trade and France’s change in position over the status of the disputed Western Sahara.

Furthermore, the recent arrests of other public figures in Algeria, that of French-Algerian writer, Boualem Sansal, and historian, Mohamed El Amine Belghith, have incited criticism from rights advocates who say Algeria uses anti-terrorism laws to target political speech. Each have been prosecuted on grounds of “undermining national unity” and are facing potentially 5-10 year prison sentences.

France’s Foreign Affairs Ministry called the sportswriter’s sentence harsh, and said it planned to provide consular support and had applied to visit him in prison.

While the case was received with shock in France’s media, few in Algeria were aware of Gleizes’ detention before the sentence was announced.

“This is a murky affair,” said Karim Adli, a sports journalist based in the city of Tizi Ouzou.

AP News, Maghrebi.org