Georges Abdallah submits 9th parole request to French authorities

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Al Mayadeen
9 Jun 2023 22:40
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The eighth request was accepted in 2013 by the ordinary and appellate courts, but the French government obstructed the release by refusing to sign the deportation paper to Lebanon at the request of the American administration.

File photo shows Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Factions (LARF) activist George Ibrahim Abdallah escorted by a French Gendarme as he arrives at Lyon courthouse, July 10, 1986 (Samidoun network)

Georges Abdallah, the imprisoned Lebanese revolutionary, submitted a ninth request of repeal to French authorities to release him from his extrajudicial imprisonment.

The eighth request was accepted in 2013 by the ordinary and appellate courts, but the French government obstructed the release by refusing to sign the deportation paper to Lebanon at the request of the American administration.

The leaked emails of former US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton revealed that she had liaised with her French counterpart to obstruct the process of releasing him and asked to keep Abdullah in prison.

In January 2015, an email from Clinton to Laurent Fabius reads: "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."

In other words, the US ordered the French government to stomp over its legal system and over the principle of separation of powers.

Abdallah's lawyer, Jean-Louis Chalanset, sees that keeping him the oldest political prisoner in Europe, incarcerated is a "lack of courage" and "subservience" from Paris.

Abdallah has so far served 38 years in prison, which makes him the longest-held prisoner in Europe. He was accused of assassinating US and Israeli diplomats and was sentenced based on these accusations.

Abdallah completed the minimum portion of his life sentence in 1999, but French authorities denied his eight parole requests. The judiciary agreed several times to these requests, given that the French Interior Ministry planned on deporting him, but that decision was never taken.

Over the years, leftist MPs and human rights organizations such as the Human Rights League (LDH) and even the French intelligence chief called for his release.