As the French authorities chose to do in this case — avoiding the confrontational stance that worsened Boualem Sansal’s situation — French journalist Christophe Gleizes adopted a low profile on Wednesday, December 3, before the Tizi Ouzou Court of Appeal. He requested “clemency.” It did not start well: immediately after his plea, the Prosecutor’s Office called for a 10-year prison sentence for “glorifying terrorism,” an even harsher penalty than the one handed down at first instance.
But things had also started poorly for the Franco-Algerian writer, who was sentenced on appeal to five years in prison — the prosecution had sought ten — before Sansal was ultimately pardoned on “humanitarian grounds” after an intervention by the German president. The essayist quickly returned to his old ways, through provocations that cost him his Algerian passport. Gleizes, for his part, wants only to be released from Algerian detention.
The 36-year-old reporter, who received a seven-year prison sentence at first instance, apologized, admitting he had committed “many journalistic errors despite (his) good intentions.” He acknowledged that he should have requested a journalist visa rather than a tourist one to travel to Algeria and secretly film his report.
His confessions did not sway the prosecutor, who requested a 10-year prison term. “The accused did not come to Algeria to do journalistic work but to commit a hostile act,” asserted the magistrate.
Gleizes is the only French journalist imprisoned abroad. He was arrested on May 28, 2024, in Tizi Ouzou and placed under judicial supervision until his first hearing. He faced serious charges: staying “in the country with a tourist visa,” “glorification of terrorism,” and “possession of publications intended for propaganda harmful to national interests,” according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
On Wednesday, the court asked him whether he knew that the Movement for the Self-Determination of Kabylie (MAK) had been designated a terrorist organization in May 2021 by Algerian authorities when he met its leader, Ferhat Mehenni, in Paris in October of the same year. “I wasn’t aware of that, and I’m ashamed to say it. It undermines my competence. I completely missed that information,” Gleizes replied.
He stated that he had “deeply questioned himself… These mistakes forced me to reflect,” he insisted, adding that he held “no resentment” toward Algiers. With tears in his voice, he repeated that he had “only one pain — being separated from (his) family,” whom he wants to “rejoin as soon as possible.”
Speaking on France Inter last Monday, his French lawyer, Emmanuel Daoud, expressed hope for “a favorable outcome,” given the new climate of “easing relations between France and Algeria.” Even if “the two cases have nothing to do with each other,” Daoud viewed the pardon granted to Sansal as “a positive signal.”
Yet at the end of last October, Thibaut Bruttin, director-general of RSF, declared that Gleizes “has no business being in prison — he is guilty only of doing his job as a sports journalist and loving Algerian football.” But before the hearing, the lawyer struck a more cautious tone: “We must explain to the appellate judges that a journalist does not engage in politics,” “is not an ideologue,” and “is not an activist.”
Emphasizing his respect for the Algerian judiciary, “independent and sovereign,” Daoud dismissed provocative claims in France portraying the journalist as “a hostage.” He affirmed that Gleizes had been allowed visits, had access to his criminal file, and had been able to meet with his lawyers.
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