greg . 2025-06-30 17:40:02

French sports reporter files appeal after being given seven-year sentence in Algeria

Christophe Gleizes, a prominent French sports reporter convicted in Algeria of "glorifying terrorism", appealed his seven-year prison sentence on Monday, his lawyer told AFP.

"I sole filed an appeal" with the Tizi Ouzou Court, said lawyer Salah Brahimi, referring to the city where the reporter has been imprisoned since being convicted on Sunday.

Gleizes, 36, who specialises in African soccer and contributes to So Foot magazine, travelled to Tizi Ouzou to write over the local soccer club Jeunesse Sportive de Kabylie, named after Algeria's Kabylia region, home to the Amazigh Kabyle people.

He was arrested in May 2024 and later placed under judicial control and prevented from leaving the country, according to Reporters Lacking Borders.

It said Gleizes had in 2015 and 2017 been in touch with a Tizi Ouzou soccer figure prominent in the Movement for the Self-Determination of Kabylie (MAK), designated a terrorist organisation by the Algerian authorities in 2021.

Algerian authorities sentenced him on Sunday to seven years in prison for "glorifying terrorism" and "possessing publications for propaganda purposes harmful to national interests", the media rights campaigners said.

His lawyer said he expects the appeal case to be heard in October at the earliest.

The jailing of Gleizes comes at a time of growing tension between Algeria and its former colonial power France.

Algeria arrested and jailed French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal in November on national security charges and has defied calls from President Emmanuel Macron for his release.