Dear Friends,
On Tuesday 3 December, the brother and close friends of French sports journalist Christophe Gleizes spent the entire day at RSF headquarters anxiously waiting for the verdict of his appeal trial.
Christophe Gleizes is the only French journalist currently imprisoned anywhere in the world. On 29 June, he was sentenced to seven years behind bars. The charges against him — “glorifying terrorism” and “possessing publications for propaganda purposes harmful to national interests” — are shockingly unfounded.
At 6:27 p.m. in France, as we held on to the hope he would be released, the ruling came in: the Tizi Ouzou Court of Appeal upheld his seven-year prison sentence. Everyone in the room felt shock and total disbelief.
We have, of course, condemned this profoundly unjust sentence in the strongest possible terms. Above all, we are calling for renewed support and action to secure Christophe’s release. We will stand with his family and his support committee until he returns to France and is reunited with his loved ones.
