Ballon d'Or ceremony raises case of French sports journalist jailed in Algeria
Summary
The Ballon d’Or ceremony in London called attention to French sports journalist Christophe Gleizes, who is serving a seven-year sentence in Algeria. Gleizes was arrested while reporting on a football club in the Kabylie region; Algerian authorities accused him of supporting terrorism, while press freedom group RSF says his contacts were part of his journalism.Key Facts
- Presenters Kate Scott and Thierry Henry dedicated the ceremony to Gleizes and displayed the hashtag “#FreeGleize.”
- Gleizes, 37, writes for French magazines So Foot and Society and covers African football.
- He travelled to Algeria in May 2024 to report on Jeunesse Sportive de Kabylie, a football club based in Tizi Ouzou.
- Algeria designated the Movement for the Self-Determination of Kabylie a terrorist organisation in 2021.
- Authorities accused Gleizes of possessing publications deemed harmful to national security and of contacting a club official associated with the movement.
- At his appeal hearing, Gleizes said he had made mistakes and should have entered Algeria on a journalist visa instead of a tourist visa.
- RSF announced a solidarity football match for 11 November, which it said would mark Gleizes’s 500th day in detention.
- Gleizes’s case unfolded amid strained relations between France and Algeria, including diplomatic expulsions and disagreements over Western Sahara.
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