Journalist remains behind bars amid Paris-Algiers backsliding
Paris-Algiers relations continue to deteriorate, and journalist Christophe Gleizes is bearing the brunt of the tensions from within a prison cell, reported Atalayar on 29th August. Gleizes, a French sports journalist, was accused in 2024 by the Algerian authorities of “apologising for terrorism” and possessing “propaganda harmful to the national interest.”
Gleizes is still in prison and awaits an appeal trial which is scheduled for this autumn. He contributed to So Foot and Society magazines and specialised in African football but was arrested in May 2024 whilst in the JS Kabylie football club. After 13 months of judicial supervision, Gleizes was tried and sentenced to seven years in prison.
Prior to being arrested, Gleizes was in Algeria speaking to numerous local figures including a leader of the Tizi-Ouzou club. This leader is affiliated with the Kabile Independence Movement, a group that the Algerian authorities have labelled a terrorist organisation.
Gleizes’ friends and family didn’t speak up until after his conviction last June, after which they began to publicly denounce his imprisonment, citing Franco-Algerian tensions as the cause of his unfounded arrest.
According to the outlet, Gleizes’ brother Maxime could never have imagined him receiving any jail time at all, let alone seven years. He is seen by his family as a collateral victim of strained Paris-Algiers relations, having received what director general of Reporters Without Borders, Thibaut Bruttin, described as an “absurd and unprecedented” sentence. He is the only French journalist currently imprisoned worldwide.
Protests in France have called for Gleizes’ release, including figures from the world of French cinema, media, football and literature.
France 24 reported with AFP on 28th August that Algeria has also jailed French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, who received a sentence of five years for damaging national unity. There have also been expulsions of French consular staff from Algeria and arrests of Algerian consular staff in France, with conflict brewing since French President Emmanuel Macron’s 2024 decision to support the Moroccan autonomy plan for Western Sahara, a disputed territory. Algeria supports the pro-independence Polisario Front which seeks a referendum and an end to Moroccan occupation.
AFP via agencies, France 24, Atalayar, Maghrebi
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