Georges Abdallah freed after four decades in French prison
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French authorities deport revolutionary activist Georges Abdallah to Beirut after 41 years in detention.
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A police convoy believed to be transporting Lebanese revolutionary Georges Ibrahim Abdallah leaves Lannemezan prison in southern France on July 25, 2025. (AP)
French authorities have released Lebanese activist Georges Abdallah, who will be deported to Beirut on Friday, nearly 41 years after his arrest. According to Al Mayadeen’s envoy to Paris, the decision came a day earlier than scheduled.
The early deportation was reportedly intended to prevent Abdallah from receiving a popular reception. French authorities also prohibited him from issuing any press or public statements before his departure.
Sources on the ground indicate that Abdallah is expected to board a flight to Beirut within hours. However, the circumstances surrounding his deportation remain heavily controlled by French officials.
Robert Abdallah, the brother of the activist, described hours of anxiety and anticipation, noting that there is still no clear date or time for Georges Abdallah’s arrival. Al Mayadeen's envoy said that the activist's plane is expected to land in Beirut at 2:30 pm local time.
The French judiciary had ordered Abdallah’s release on July 17, following more than four decades of detention. Throughout his imprisonment, the United States and the Israeli occupation exerted pressure on France to prevent his release.
Who is Georges Abdallah?
Born in 1951 in Qoubaiyat, a town in northern Lebanon, Georges Abdallah came from a Maronite Christian family. He pursued higher education in France, where he studied philosophy at the University of Toulouse. It was during this period that he was first exposed to leftist and revolutionary thought, which would come to define his political identity.
Abdallah returned to Lebanon at the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War in the mid-1970s and joined the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command (PFLP-GC). Motivated by anti-colonial conviction and belief in the Palestinian cause, he embraced the path of armed struggle, which would later draw the attention of Western intelligence services.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Abdallah was an active figure within leftist revolutionary circles in Lebanon and the wider Arab world. He was aligned with Arab nationalist and anti-imperialist movements and maintained close ties with several European leftist groups that shared his views on resistance and decolonization.
During this period, operations carried out by groups allegedly linked to Abdallah targeted Israeli and American diplomats in Paris. Although no direct evidence connected Abdallah to these actions, they placed him squarely in the crosshairs of Western and French security agencies.
Arrest and trial in France
Abdallah was arrested in Lyon, France, in 1984 on charges of carrying forged documents. Within a short time, the case escalated as French authorities accused him of participating in acts of terrorism, largely due to his political associations and prior membership in the PFLP-GC.
Despite the lack of solid evidence, his case became highly politicized, fueled by media campaigns in France and the US. From the beginning, human rights organizations and legal observers regarded him not as a criminal but as a political prisoner, which became the more prevalent view worldwide.
In 1987, Abdallah was sentenced to life imprisonment, which was said to have been the product of a political trial, not one grounded in law. As years passed, questions surrounding the fairness of his trial and the independence of the French judiciary intensified, especially after the release of declassified documents suggesting that US pressure had directly influenced France’s refusal to grant parole.
According to Jacques Attali, a senior adviser to then-President François Mitterrand, there was “no legal evidence” against Abdallah apart from his possession of a forged passport.
Blocked release despite legal eligibility
Abdallah became eligible for parole in 1999, having fulfilled all legal conditions for early release. However, successive French governments repeatedly refused to execute court decisions authorizing his release, citing "diplomatic pressure", primarily from Washington.
At one point, the French government demanded guarantees from Beirut that Abdallah would be repatriated to Lebanon immediately upon release. But even these assurances failed to overcome the political blockade imposed on his case.
For over four decades, Georges Ibrahim Abdallah remained confined in a French prison cell, unrepentant and unwavering. Never once did he express regret for his beliefs, nor did he agree to any compromise in exchange for early release. Instead, he held firm to his revolutionary and political convictions, authoring letters and essays from behind bars that reflected a sharp political consciousness and steadfast commitment to the Palestinian cause and regional liberation struggles.
Abdallah consistently rejected conditional release offers that required him to renounce his ideological positions. This unyielding stance earned him widespread respect across Arab and international progressive movements.
