Georges Abdallah, Lebanese resistance icon, leaves French jail after 40 years
A French court has ordered the release of Lebanese resistance fighter Georges Abdallah, who was arrested some 40 years ago over the killings of US and Israeli agents in Paris.
Abdallah called the “Nelson Mandela of the Arab World” was detained in 1982 and was the longest-held prisoner in Western Europe. He has been jailed in France in a flagrant politicization of the country’s own judicial system, which has authorized his release on three occasions.
“In (a) decision dated today, the court granted Georges Ibrahim Abdallah conditional release from December 6, subject to the condition that he leave French territory and not appear there again,” the prosecutors said on Friday.
Abdallah was a former Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) member and the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Factions (LARF).
In 1982 Abdallah’s resistance group LARF accepted responsibility for the death of Israeli and American agents in Paris.
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LARF said they were legitimate acts of resistance against foreign occupation, as Israel had invaded Lebanon yet again.
Abdallah was handed over a life sentence in 1987 after being charged with the killings of US military attaché Charles Ray and the Israeli regime’s diplomat Yakov Barsimentov in Paris.
French authorities accused Abdallah of the attempted assassination of US Consul General Robert Homme in Strasbourg.
Abdallah’s trial was noted for its lack of proof, and his own lawyer later confessed to secretly working for the government.
There had been favorable court decisions for Abdallah over the decades, but governmental interference has not allowed them to be implemented or respected.
The US had consistently opposed his release. Eventually, his 11th bid for release succeeded.
France’s anti-terrorism prosecutor said it would appeal against Abdallah’s release.
Abdallah refuses to repent or to recant his support for Palestine, and many believe that’s a primary reason why he hasn’t been released. His group had claimed responsibility for the killings of Ray and Barsimentov saying they were in response to Washington and Tel Aviv’s involvement in the Lebanese civil war.
Israel was heavily affiliated with Lebanon’s civil war, which began in 1975 and officially ended in 1990.
Tel Aviv and Washington backed right-wing Christian militants in Lebanon’s civil war who were fighting the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and other Lebanese factions at the time. The war began in 1975 and officially ended in 1990.
Israeli troops officially invaded Lebanon and occupied the country. The occupation lasted until 2000 when Hezbollah liberated south Lebanon.
Abdallah has become an icon of the Lebanese-Palestinian struggle against Israel since his imprisonment.
His lawyer Jean-Louis Chalanset said the release marks “a legal and a political victory.”
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