* The journalist’s entourage believes in a World Cup effect
* No more legal obstacles to his release, according to his entourage
* The Algerian president “has the fate of Christophe in his hands”
by Etienne Breban
Efforts towards the release of Christophe Gleizes are at “a tipping point”, said Thursday the entourage of the sports journalist, who calls on Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune for “a gesture of humanity” before the first anniversary of his detention, June 29, or even the kick-off of the Football World Cup on June 11.
“President Tebboune has the fate of Christophe Gleizes in his hands,” Emmanuel Daoud, the reporter’s French lawyer, told Reuters, who believes that the recent reheating of troubled relations between Algiers and Paris opens the way to a happy outcome.
“I think it would be very detrimental to the image of the great country that is Algeria if a sports journalist specializing in football were imprisoned, even though the Algerian team, by its merits, is going to participate in the biggest world football competition, namely the World Cup,” he pleads.
The French lawyer of Christophe Gleizes, sentenced at the end of June 2025 to seven years of criminal imprisonment for “apology of terrorism”, confirms that the last obstacle to a presidential pardon was crossed on May 25, the Algerian Supreme Court having rejected the prosecutor’s appeal for cassation in this issue with diplomatic implications.
Christophe Gleizes filed a cassation appeal last December after his sentence was confirmed on appeal, before abandoning it in May in the hope of favoring a presidential pardon. The Algerian public prosecutor’s office also appealed to the Court of Cassation, demanding an increase in the sentence to 10 years.
“There is no legal obstacle to the release of Christophe,” underlined Thibaut Bruttin, director general of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), in an interview with Reuters.
“Now we are at a tipping point,” he judges as the World Cup approaches. “What is important for us is both to do everything to ensure that he is released before then, but also to push so that if he is not, he is represented in one way or another at the World Cup.”
An independent sports journalist working in particular for the magazines So Foot and Society (So Press group), Christophe Gleizes, 37, was arrested in Algeria in May 2024 while reporting on the Jeunesse sportif de Kabylie, a Tizi Ouzou football club.
APPEASE BETWEEN PARIS AND ALGIERS
“Everything that is happening in recent months, or even recent weeks, without showing exaggerated or inconsistent optimism, is rather going in the right direction,” judges Emmanuel Daoud when referring to the timid relaunch of diplomatic relations between France and its former colony.
“But we must remain extremely cautious and obviously respect the sovereignty of the Algerian state,” he adds.
The diplomatic crisis between Paris and Algiers, which arose with France’s support for the Moroccan plan for Western Sahara in the summer of 2024, seems to have calmed down recently, with a number of ministers making official visits to their counterparts.
The French ambassador to Algeria, Stéphane Romatet, also returned to Algeria on May 8, a year after his recall by French President Emmanuel Macron.
“Does this favor a solution for the release of Christophe Gleizes? The answer is yes. Does this have an impact on a happy and very rapid schedule? I don’t know,” comments Emmanuel Daoud.
Also convicted of “possession of publications for the purpose of propaganda harming the national interest”, the journalist was incriminated for interviews with members of the Movement for the Self-Determination of Kabylia (MAK), classified as a “terrorist organization” by Algiers since 2021.
“I hope that humanity, generosity, reason, solidarity will command, or in any case encourage, President Tebboune to take only one decision, that of grace and very rapid grace”, insists Christophe’s lawyer Gleizes.
“The responsibility today is solely in the camp of the Algerian Republic,” adds Thibaut Bruttin.
If Christophe Gleizes were to be pardoned by Abdelmadjid Tebboune, a rapid release would be expected.
“The principle is simple, the president signs a presidential decree and it is of immediate application. The time to do the administrative formalities, I think that it does not take more than 24 to 48 hours, or even perhaps less than 24 hours”, estimates Emmanuel Daoud.
Visited regularly by his family, Christophe Gleizes is in good physical shape, according to Thibaut Bruttin.
If the journalist may have had “drops in morale”, the mobilization in favor of his release, notably during the Coupe de France final which was kicked off by his parents, brought “a lot of relief to his heart”, assures the director general of RSF.
“The fact remains that this whole story has gone on for far too long, and what is clear is that no one wants to celebrate one year of his imprisonment in Algeria.”
(Reporting by Etienne Breban, editing by Sophie Louet)
