France delays decision on Lebanese activist Georges Abdallah's release
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Abdallah remains one of the longest-serving prisoners in France, where most life sentences result in release within 30 years.
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Supporters of Lebanese Georges Ibrahim Abdullah, who has been jailed in France for 28 years, hold up his portrait with Arabic reading: " I'm Georges Abdullah," during a sit-in near the US Embassy in Aukar, east of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, December 28, 2012. (AP)
France has postponed its decision on the release request of Lebanese activist Georges Ibrahim Abdallah to June 19, according to AFP on Thursday.
The Paris Court of Appeals stated that it was "not possible to approve the parole request submitted by Abdallah," adding that "it is necessary for him to pay the compensations."
According to AFP, citing a judicial source and Jean-Louis Chalanset, Abdallah's lawyer, the court postponed its decision to allow the prisoner to "provide proof of compensation to the plaintiffs."
In response, Robert Abdallah, the brother of prisoner Georges Abdallah, commented on the developments in an interview with Al Mayadeen, asserting that everything related to the case is about "undermining this symbol," explaining that the French authorities "want to kill the symbolism of a resistant figure and extinguish the idea of resistance."
On Thursday, Abdallah stated that his brother's case is "primarily a political struggle," expressing hope that France would "free itself from American and Israeli influence" in its judicial decision.
Robert Abdallah also stated that the French authorities "are treating the prisoner as a political detainee, but claim he is a criminal detainee."
Read more: US vigorously opposed Georges Abdallah's release from France: Reuters
In this context, he pointed out that the French "are aware of the aggression faced by the Lebanese and Palestinian peoples, and they also understand that Georges Abdallah is one of the figures associated with this historical conflict."
He affirmed that the authorities in France "recognize that Georges Abdallah's case is a political issue," and for this reason, they are "constantly obstructing the judicial process from this standpoint."
US interference in Abdallah's case
The United States has also consistently opposed Abdallah's release, while Lebanese authorities have repeatedly called for his freedom.
A Wikileaks document about former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's leaked emails revealed that between January 10-14, 2023, she sent an email to former French Minister of Foreign Laurent Fabius, saying that "although the French Government has no legal authority to overturn the Court of Appeal’s January 10 decision, we hope French officials might find another basis to challenge the decision’s legality."
Unlike previous rulings, the court’s latest decision does not require government authorization, Abdallah's lawyer Jean-Louis Chalanset told AFP, describing the outcome as "a legal and a political victory."
Over the years, leftist MPs and human rights organizations, such as the Human Rights League (LDH) and even the French intelligence chief have been calling for his release.
Abdallah’s case has garnered significant support from leftist and communist circles in France. Last month, Annie Ernaux, the 2022 Nobel Prize laureate in literature, condemned that his prolonged detention "shamed France", in an article published by the communist newspaper L’Humanité.
The longest-held prisoner in Europe
Abdallah, a former member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), has so far served 40 years in prison, which makes him the longest-held prisoner in Europe.
He founded the Marxist-Leninist Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Factions (LARF), which claimed responsibility for four attacks in France during the 1980s.
The Lebanese revolutionary was accused of taking part in the assassination of US military attache Charles Robert Ray and Israeli diplomat Yacov Barsimantov in 1982 and was sentenced on these accusations.
Abdallah never responded to the list of accusations and considered that the French judicial system was "despicably" taking the resistance action out of context.
At his trial for the alleged killing of the diplomats, Abdallah was handed a life sentence—significantly harsher than the 10 years sought by prosecutors. His lawyer, Jacques Verges, called the sentence a "declaration of war."
Now 73, Abdallah maintains that he is a "fighter" advocating for Palestinian rights, not a "criminal". This marks his 11th attempt at securing parole.
He became eligible for parole in 1999, but all previous applications were denied, except in 2013, when his release was conditioned on expulsion from France.
However, then-Interior Minister Manuel Valls refused to implement the order, keeping Abdallah in prison.
