France grants release to Georges Abdallah after 40 years in prison
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Over the years, leftist MPs and human rights organizations, such as the Human Rights League (LDH) and even the French intelligence chief, have called for his release.
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A poster reading "Freedom for Georges Abdallah" is placed near razor wire on the gate outside the prison in southern France on October 25, 2014. (AFP)
A French court ordered on Friday the release of Georges Abdallah, the Lebanese revolutionary imprisoned in France, who has been detained for 40 years.
The court ruled that Abdallah, who was first arrested in 1984 and convicted in 1987, would be freed on December 6, provided that he leave France.
It is worth noting that French "anti-terrorism" prosecutors announced they would appeal the decision.
"In (a) decision dated today, the court granted Georges Ibrahim Abdallah conditional release from December 6, subject to the condition that he leaves French territory and not appear there again," the prosecutors stated.
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.
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.
Georges Abdallah: Prisoners mirror resistance of Palestinian people
The Lebanese revolutionary sent a message on the occasion of Palestinian Prisoners' Day on April 20, affirming that celebrating this day aims above all to "confirm our duties toward the prisoners, loudly and clearly," as well as to "include their liberation in the general dynamic of our ongoing struggles."
At the time, Abdallah said that this day also aims to "encourage the lively revolutionary forces and their resisting vanguards to take all necessary measures to practically express our definite determination to liberate our comrades from the grips of their jailers."
He stressed that thousands of prisoners who have been imprisoned for many years, and some for several decades, "reflect today, more than ever, the resistance of the Palestinian people in its various forms" against the Israeli occupation.
Additionally, Abdallah emphasized that the current Israeli government, "more than any previous government, cannot but intensify repression and try to expand the destruction of everything Palestinian," especially anyone who joins the collective will of the Resistance.
He pointed out that the heroes of the revolutionary struggle, especially those who embodied the collective will of the Resistance (referring to the prisoners), are "the preferred targets of extermination policies that fascists from all spectra rush to implement, especially as the [ongoung] genocide makes it easy to do so."
In this context, Abdallah called on international movements in solidarity with the Palestinians to take this reality into account, explaining that we are "dealing with a genocide unfolding in front of everyone, not in the hidden corners of secret [detention] camps," which is being witnessed by hundreds of millions of people around the world for the first time in human history.
