An Algerian court has cleared the way for a potential presidential pardon of a detained French journalist by rejecting an appeal from prosecutors seeking a harsher sentence and acknowledging the defendant's withdrawal of his own appeal, his lawyers confirmed on Wednesday.
Court Decision
Lawyers for Christophe Gleizes, a French sports journalist who has been detained in Algeria since 2024 on terror-related charges, announced the Court of Cassation's decision in a joint statement on Facebook. The court is Algeria's highest court of appeal.
“A decisive step has just been taken regarding the legal situation of Mr. Christophe Gleizes,” lawyers Amirouche Bakouri and Emmanuel Daoud said in the statement.
Presidential Pardon Prospects
The move is widely seen as opening the door for a pardon by President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, especially as diplomatic relations between Paris and Algiers have been thawing in recent weeks after nearly two years of tensions. “The future of Mr. Christophe Gleizes now falls under the prerogatives of the president of the republic,” the lawyers said.
Gleizes, 37, was arrested in May 2024 while traveling to northeastern Algeria's Kabylia region to write about the country's most decorated football club, Jeunesse Sportive de Kabylie. He was sentenced in June last year to seven years in prison for “glorifying terrorism” after being convicted of having contact with members of the Movement for the Self-Determination of Kabylie (MAK), a foreign-based group that Algiers has designated a terrorist organization.
The sentence was upheld on appeal in December, and in March Gleizes withdrew his final appeal to the court of cassation.
Lawyers' Hopes
His lawyers expressed hope that a pardon by Tebboune would be granted “as quickly as possible.” Algeria traditionally issues pardons during major religious and national holidays, including on July 5, the day marking the country's independence from French colonial rule in 1962.
Thibaut Bruttin, head of Reporters Without Borders, which coordinates a support committee for Gleizes, told AFP that a pardon was “the only solution” for the journalist to be released from prison now.
