Overview
- The Tizi Ouzou appeals court confirmed the seven-year term for “glorifying terrorism” and possessing propaganda tied to contacts with a figure linked to a banned Kabylia separatist group.
- During the appeal, Gleizes pleaded guilty, acknowledged “many journalistic mistakes,” and asked for forgiveness and clemency, according to his lawyer.
- France publicly criticized the ruling and called for his release, saying cooperation and defense explanations should have changed the verdict.
- Gleizes, arrested in May 2024 while reporting on JS Kabylie after entering on a tourist visa, is a 36-year-old freelancer for So Foot and Society.
- With the appeal rejected, a presidential pardon from Abdelmadjid Tebboune is now the only route to his release, as authorities also pursue other cases such as the detention of columnist Saad Bouakba following last month’s pardon of novelist Boualem Sansal.