The organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and its relatives again called on Monday June 29 for the “immediate release” of French journalist Christophe Gleizes. Detained in Algeria for a year, he is now hoping for a pardon from Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune.
“One year since Christophe Gleizes has been unjustly detained,” Thibaut Bruttin, director general of RSF, who heads the support committee for the sports journalist, contributor to the So Foot and Society media, declared in a press release. The World Cup “is played with an empty chair bearing his name in the press box, his official accreditation reminds us that his place is in the stadiums, among the journalists who cover the event, and not in a cell,” he added.
On the eve of the opening of the World Cup, Gianni Infantino, the president of Fifa, who had accredited the journalist for the competition, said he hoped that he would obtain a presidential pardon and be able to attend the tournament (June 11-July 19).
His brother visited him on Sunday in Kolea prison, his parents, Sylvie and Francis Godard explained on RTL on Monday. “Prison conditions are very good,” his mother said. “From a health point of view, he is doing well but confinement is really starting to weigh on him: he is cut off from the world, from current events,” she added.
Sentenced to seven years in prison
Christophe Gleizes, 37, was sentenced on June 29, 2025 to seven years in prison for “apology of terrorism” with a committal warrant. He was arrested in May 2024 as part of a report on the Jeunesse sportif de Kabylie (JSK) football club and placed under judicial supervision.
He withdrew an appeal in March, hoping to pave the way for a presidential pardon. The Algerian justice system also rejected an appeal filed by the prosecution in May, closing the legal proceedings.
“We welcome the recent judicial developments in Algeria,” his parents wrote in the press release, calling for “these advances” to “quickly lead to a presidential pardon.” “We continue to wait, with hope and dignity, for Christophe’s return among us,” they add, referring to the journalist’s grandmother, aged 102, who “in a video, reiterated, on this sad anniversary, her call to see her grandson again.”
