French journalist Gleizes presents a recourse to request a new trial in Algeria

Paris. – French journalist Christophe Gleizes, sentenced to seven years in prison in Algeria for apologising for terrorism, has filed an appeal for cassation to request a new trial, his lawyers announced this Sunday.

“Christophe Gleizes has filed an appeal,” declared his French lawyer, Emmanuel Daoud, and the Algerian, Amirouche Bakouri, in a statement to the French media and also released on social media on the day the deadline for doing so expired.

An Appeal Court in Algeria confirmed on December 3 the seven-year prison sentence for the French journalist, sentenced in the first instance at the end of June for “apology of terrorism” and imprisoned since that date.

Christophe Gleizes, specialized in football, went to Algeria to conduct several sports reports, including one on the club of Tizi Ouzou, whose president is also a prominent figure of the Berberist Movement for the Self-Determination of Kabylia, a group considered terrorist by Algiers.

Detained in that locality, located about one hundred kilometers east of the capital, he was accused of glorifying terrorism and of possessing publications with propagandistic purposes detrimental to Algerian interests, when the complicated relations between Paris and Algiers are once again very tense.

Gleizes was sentenced in June in the first instance to seven years in prison for “apology for terrorism”, a sentence that was confirmed on appeal.