PARIS: A prominent French sports journalist sentenced to seven years in prison in Algeria at the end of June is in “fighting mood” but feels “isolated,” his parents told AFP after visiting their son earlier this month.
Christophe Gleizes, who is being held in the city of Tizi Ouzou, is being detained against the background of escalating political tensions between Paris and its former north African colony.
“Even if his morale is high, even if he is in fighting mood, he feels completely cut off from the world, isolated,” his mother, Sylvie Godard, told AFP in an interview at the Paris offices of media rights campaigners Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
Along with his stepfather, Francis, she is calling for the case of her son, the only French journalist currently detained abroad, not to be used to “settle political scores” between France and Algeria.
Gleizes, who specializes in African football and contributes to the top-selling So Foot magazine, was convicted in Algeria of “glorifying terrorism,” a charge his parents said was “totally absurd.”
An appeal has been filed and is expected to be heard in the autumn.
Algeria has also jailed French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, sentenced to five years for damaging national unity.
As well as these two cases, there have been tit-for-tat expulsions of consular staff.
President Emmanuel Macron angered Algiers in July 2024 when he backed Moroccan sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara, where Algeria supports the pro-independence Polisario Front.
Francis Godard described his stepson as a “kind of collateral victim of the bad relations between France and Algeria at the moment.”
“We don’t want Christophe’s case to be used to resolve political issues with which Christophe has nothing to do,” said Sylvie Godard.
French sports journalist ‘isolated’ in Algeria prison
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French sports journalist ‘isolated’ in Algeria prison
- Christophe Gleizes, who is being held in the city of Tizi Ouzou, is being detained against the background of escalating political tensions between Paris and its former north African colony
- Gleizes, who specializes in African football and contributes to the top selling So Foot magazine, was convicted in Algeria of “glorifying terrorism,” a charge his parents said was “totally absurd”
US announces start of effort to ‘eliminate Daesh fighters’ and weapons sites in Syria following deaths of Americans
- “This is not the beginning of a war — it is a declaration of vengeance,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says
- President Trump earlier pledged “very serious retaliation” but stressed that Syria was fighting alongside US troops
WASHINGTON: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has announced the start of an operation to “eliminate Daesh fighters, infrastructure, and weapons sites” in Syria following the deaths of three US citizens.
“This is not the beginning of a war — it is a declaration of vengeance. The United States of America, under President Trump’s leadership, will never hesitate and never relent to defend our people,” he said Friday on social media.
Two Iowa National Guard members and a US civilian interpreter were killed Dec. 13 in an attack in the Syrian desert that the Trump administration has blamed on the Daesh group. The slain National Guard members were among hundreds of US troops deployed in eastern Syria as part of a coalition fighting IS.
Soon after word of the deaths, President Donald Trump pledged “very serious retaliation” but stressed that Syria was fighting alongside US troops. Trump has said Syrian President Ahmad Al-Sharaa was “extremely angry and disturbed by this attack” and the shooting attack by a gunman came as the US military is expanding its cooperation with Syrian security forces.
A US official told The Associated Press that the attack was conducted using F-15 Eagle jets, A-10 Thuderbolt ground attack aircraft and AH-64 Apache helicopters. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive operations, said more strikes should be expected.
When asked for further information, the Pentagon referred AP to Hegseth’s social media post.
White House officials noted that Trump had made clear that retaliation was coming.
“President Trump told the world that the United States would retaliate for the killing of our heroes by Daesh in Syria, and he is delivering on that promise,” White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly said in a statement.
Trump this week met privately with the families of the slain Americans at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware before he joined top military officials and other dignitaries on the tarmac for the dignified transfer, a solemn and largely silent ritual honoring US service members killed in action.
The guardsmen killed in Syria on Saturday were Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar, 25, of Des Moines, and Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard, 29, of Marshalltown, according to the US Army. Ayad Mansoor Sakat, of Macomb, Michigan, a US civilian working as an interpreter, was also killed.
