During today's Cabinet meeting, the Lebanese minister of culture in the caretaker government, Judge Mohammad Wissam al-Mortada, called on French authorities to release Lebanese revolutionary figure and political prisoner Georges Abdallah, who has completed his sentence in French prisons and whose continued detention is deemed illegal.

Minister al-Mortada's request followed a demand from French authorities, through Lebanon's Ministry of Justice, for the extradition of a French-Algerian citizen to stand trial in France.

The request by the culture minister was supported and subsequently approved by the Cabinet which then decided to direct the minister of justice to take the necessary steps to secure Abdallah's release and facilitate his return to Lebanon.

Georges Abdallah, a revolutionary figure, has been imprisoned in France since 1984. He 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.

Read more: Georges Abdallah: Prisoners mirror resistance of Palestinian people