On Tuesday, a union of French journalists called on Algeria to release a French football writer who has been jailed for seven years to support the terrorist attacks.
Christophe Grice, 36, was sentenced Sunday after being convicted of retaining an exchange with a supporter of Algerian Kabir minority self-determination.
The Paris-based journalist specializing in African football from So Foot Magazine traveled to Algeria in May 2024 to visit a story about the famous club JSK (Jeunesse Sportive de Kabylie), based in Tiziuzou, about 100 km (62 miles) from the capital, Algiers.
He was detained in Tij Ozuu a few days later, and for the past 13 months he was in a limited form of freedom, unable to leave the country and was obliged to report it to the police regularly.
Under the advice of a French diplomat, his family and fellow journalists continued to envelop his light humiliation until the outcome of the trial came to light.
“The imprisonment of journalists to carry out his profession is a red line that should never be crossed. Christophe Glise must return his freedom, his family and his writing,” the representatives of journalists from around 40 different French media said in a statement.
“We cannot justify the ordeal that Christophe is experiencing now,” his family said.
“In all his writings, he showed passionate interest in the lives of African footballers. Is this his reward?”
The Gleizes case recalls the case of French Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, who has been jailed since his arrest at Algiers Airport last November.
On Tuesday, the Court of Appeals in Algiers confirmed the five-year prison sentence that was handed over in March after Sansal’s conviction for breaking national security laws.
The 80-year-old writer suffering from cancer has found him “threatening national unity” in an interview he went to a right-wing French website that questioned official Algerian accounts of pre-independence history.
Following the Court of Appeal sentence, French Prime Minister François Bailloux expressed his hope that President Abdelmazid Tebne would use the opportunity of Algeria’s 63rd Independence Day on Saturday to grant pardon to Sansal.
In the Grice incident, the Paris Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that he “remorse the heavy sentence” imposed on journalists, but it did not seek his release.
Relations between the two countries have been surrounded by knife edges last year as President Emmanuel Macron appears to shift France’s position in North Africa to greater support for Algerian historic rival Morocco.
Since then, there has been a series of diplomatic straits, breaking down the cooperation over speed expulsion and extradition and visas.
Sansal’s supporters say he is effectively a hostage and is being used by the Algerian government to put pressure on Paris.
Algeria says she was convicted following legitimate proceedings in the law.
Franck Annese, Gleizes’ employer, founder of Gleizes’ So Press Media Group, described him as “super guy, enthusiastic, ambitious and humorous.”
“He definitely doesn’t have a political x to grind. His interviews and articles prove that.”
Grice “falls in love” with African football when he investigated the death of Cameroon Ebosse, who died in 2014 after being hit in the head by a projectile while playing for JSK in 2014, Grice “falls in love” with African football.
This led to his book, “Magic System: Modern Slavery of African Football Players,” which strongly criticized agents “exploiting the confidence and dreams of these young players.”
According to a non-Border Campaign Group Reporter (RSF), researching his article on JSK Gleizes reached out to the banished Kabyle opposition, who was once an influential figure in the football club.
The person is now the leader of the Kabilia (MAK) movement for self-determination, the RSF said.
In 2021, Mac was banned as a terrorist by the Algerian government.
Grice’s supporters argue that two of the three exchanges of journalists took place before three exchanges with opposition figures were banned. And that all exchanges are related to soccer, not politics.
