PARIS -- France’s President Emmanuel Macron will work toward the release of a French journalist in jail in Algeria “as soon as possible,” his office said Thursday, a day after an Algerian court confirmed his incarceration.

An appeals court upheld a seven-year prison term against Christophe Gleizes, a sports journalist who was jailed in June on terrorism-related charges.

Gleizes, 36, is France’s only journalist imprisoned abroad, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF). His jailing comes at a time of diplomatic friction between France and its former colony Algeria.

Macron was “deeply worried” to learn the news, his office said.

“We will continue to engage with the Algerian authorities to secure his release and his return to France as soon as possible,” it added.

Gleizes was arrested and placed under judicial control in May 2024 after traveling to Tizi Ouzou in northeastern Algeria’s Kabylia region — home to the Amazigh Kabyle people — to write about the country’s most decorated football club, Jeunesse Sportive de Kabylie.

He was accused of having been in contact with a local football figure prominent in the Movement for the Self-Determination of Kabylie (MAK), designated a “terrorist” organization by the authorities in 2021.

His jail sentence for “glorifying terrorism” came as France and its former colony wrangle over issues including Paris backing Morocco’s claim of sovereignty over Western Sahara, a territory where Algeria backs a pro-independence movement.

French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said on Thursday that the journalist’s release was “a major element” in current talks between the two countries.

Macron said he was “available” to speak to Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune if it were to allow progress in tense relations between both sides.

Tebboune last month pardoned French-Algerian novelist Boualem Sansal after a year-long imprisonment in Algeria, following comments made by the writer.