Ballon d'Or spotlights jailed French reporter who entered Algeria on tourist visa

The organisers of the Ballon d'Or used Monday evening's ceremony in London to highlight the case of French sports journalist Christophe Gleizes, who is serving a seven-year prison sentence in Algeria after travelling there to report on a football club on a tourist visa. Presenters Kate Scott and Thierry Henry dedicated the awards, run by France Football magazine, to the 37-year-old reporter.

Behind them, a large screen showed Gleizes's photo, the hashtag #FreeGleize and a count of how long he had been held: one year, three months and 27 days.

Key facts

• Who: Christophe Gleizes, 37, a French journalist specialising in African football who contributes to So Foot and Society.
• Sentence: seven years in prison in Algeria.
• Travel date: he went to Algeria in May 2024 to report on Jeunesse Sportive de Kabylie (JSK).
• Visa used: a tourist visa, which he later told the court was a mistake.
• Charges: accused of supporting terrorism and of possessing publications deemed harmful to national security.
• Next campaign date: a solidarity football match on 11 November, marking his 500th day in detention.

Why was he arrested?

Gleizes travelled to Algeria to write about JSK, one of the country's best-known clubs. The team is based in Tizi Ouzou, about 100km (62 miles) east of Algiers, in the mountainous Kabylie region, which is mainly home to the ethnic Amazigh people, historically known as Berbers.

Kabylie is also the base of the Movement for the Self-Determination of Kabylie (MAK), which Algeria designated a terrorist organisation in 2021. The case against Gleizes centred on his contacts with a JSK official who was also associated with the MAK. Algerian authorities accused him of supporting terrorism, and prosecutors argued that he had not come to Algeria to do journalistic work but to commit a hostile act.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which has campaigned for his release, says the exchanges took place in a journalistic context and that some contacts predated the outlawing of the group.

What did he say about his visa?

At his appeal hearing in December, GleIZES acknowledged mistakes in his reporting and told the court he should have applied for a journalist visa rather than entering Algeria on a tourist visa. "I beg your mercy so that I can be reunited with my family," he said.

What happens next?

The Algerian authorities have not commented on the decision to dedicate the ceremony to Gleizes. RSF has announced a solidarity football match for 11 November, marking his 500th day in detention. Former France internationals Robert Pirès and Vikash Dhorasoo, along with Paris Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire, are among the first participants announced.

France's Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin raised the case during a visit to Algiers in May, when relations between the two countries began to improve, urging the Algerian authorities to allow Gleizes to reunite "not with France, but with his mother". He said he believed President Abdelmadjid Tebboune would be receptive to the request.

What this means for travellers

Gleizes's own statement in court underlines the practical point: the visa category a visitor enters on matters. Anyone planning journalistic work in Algeria should check which visa applies to that activity rather than travelling on a tourist visa. His case comes amid wider concerns over the prosecution and imprisonment of writers and other public figures in Algeria.