French sports journalist Christophe Gleizes has withdrawn his appeal against his imprisonment in Algeria, his family said on Tuesday. The decision is intended to improve his chances of being released through a presidential pardon. According to his family, Gleizes steps back from legal efforts before Algeria’s highest court and instead focuses on the possibility of clemency from the Algerian presidency. The reporting links Gleizes’s case to a period of heightened diplomatic tensions between France and Algeria, noting that he was arrested in 2024. While the sources do not specify the original charges or the length of the sentence in the provided accounts, both outlets describe the same sequence: Gleizes is jailed in Algeria, his family announces he has dropped his appeal, and the family views a presidential pardon as the next available path toward his release. The withdrawal of the appeal is presented as a strategic legal move rather than a statement on the underlying case, and the outlets focus on the family’s hopes for an outcome via Algeria’s pardon process.