An Algerian court upheld on Tuesday a five-year prison sentence being served by French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal for undermining national unity, Ennahar TV said, prompting a call for clemency by France.

A court in Algeria on Tuesday upheld French-Algerian author Boualem Sansal's five-year prison sentence in a case that has raised alarm over freedom of expression in Algeria and pushed tensions with France to the brink.

French journalists' unions on Tuesday called on Algeria to release a French football writer who has been jailed for seven years for supporting terrorism. Christophe Gleizes, who is 36, was sentenced on Sunday, after being found guilty of holding exchanges with a proponent of self-determination for Algeria's Kabyle minority.