France Releases Activist George Abdallah

SadaNews - Lebanese activist George Ibrahim Abdallah, who supported the Palestinians and was convicted of complicity in the assassination of an American and an Israeli diplomat in the 1980s, was released from a French prison on Friday after spending nearly 41 years behind bars and is set to return to his homeland.

A convoy of six vehicles, including two minibuses, set off from the Lannemezan prison in the Hautes-Pyrénées region of southwestern France, according to a report from the 'Persian Press Agency', although the team was unable to see the bearded activist.

After his release from prison, the 74-year-old Abdallah, one of the longest-serving prisoners in France, will be taken directly to Tarbes airport, according to a source in the security forces, from where he will be flown to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris to board a flight to Beirut.

His lawyer, Jean-Louis Chalansié, told the 'Persian Press Agency' after the convoy departed: "This is a source of joy, emotional shock, and political victory all at once after all this time," without confirming whether his client was in the convoy. He emphasized, "He should have been released a very long time ago."

The Paris Court of Appeal issued its decision last week to release the Lebanese activist on July 25, on the condition that he leaves France and does not return.

Abdallah, who is currently 74, was sentenced to life in prison in 1987 for his involvement in the assassination of the American diplomat Charles Ray and the Israeli diplomat Yaakov Barsimentov in 1982. He has been eligible for parole for the past 25 years, but all 12 of his release requests have been denied.

On Monday, the Paris Public Prosecutor's Office announced that it would appeal the Court of Appeal's decision before the Court of Cassation, but this appeal, which will take several weeks to adjudicate, will not suspend the execution of the ruling or prevent Abdallah from returning to Lebanon.

Chalansié, who last met him in prison, said on Thursday: "He seemed very happy about his impending release, although he is aware that he is returning to a very troubled Middle East for Lebanese and Palestinians."

In recent days, Abdallah has emptied his cell, which was adorned with a red flag bearing an image of Che Guevara, and filled with many newspapers and books, which he handed over to his support committee that saw around 200 of its members protest in front of the prison on Thursday afternoon.

He gave most of his clothes to fellow inmates and is taking with him a "small bag," according to his lawyer.

His family hopes to welcome him in the VIP lounge at Beirut International Airport. They have sought permission from authorities that have been demanding his release from France for years.

It is planned that the activist will later "head to his hometown in Qabbayat in northern Lebanon, where a popular and official reception will be organized for him, including a speech by him or a family member," according to his brother.

He was met by the 'Persian Press Agency' on the day of his release decision in his cell, accompanied by the radical left MP André Torina.

During the meeting, Abdallah, with gray hair now covering his thick beard, said, "Four decades is a long time, but it doesn't feel that way when there is a dynamic for struggle."

The judges of the Court of Appeal noted that the length of his detention is "disproportionate" to the crimes committed and to the age of the former leader of the "Lebanese Revolutionary Armed Factions."

The ruling stated that Abdallah had become "a symbol from the past of the Palestinian struggle," noting that the small group he led, comprising Lebanese Christian secularists, Marxists, and pro-Palestinian activists, had disbanded and "had not committed any acts of violence since 1984."

The judges expressed regret for Abdallah's lack of any "remorse or sympathy for the two victims whom he considers enemies," but they determined that the activist, who wishes to spend his "remaining days" in his village in northern Lebanon, where he might engage in local politics, no longer poses any danger to public order.

Abdallah was injured during the Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon in 1978 and joined the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the leftist movement led by George Habash.

He later founded, along with family members, the Lebanese Revolutionary Armed Factions, a Marxist anti-imperialist organization responsible for five attacks in Europe between 1981 and 1982 as part of its support for the Palestinian cause. Four of these attacks resulted in deaths in France.

For a long time, Abdallah was considered responsible for a wave of attacks in Paris between 1985 and 1986 that killed 13 people and instilled fear in the French capital.

He was sentenced in 1986 in Lyon to four years in prison for criminal conspiracy and possession of weapons and explosives, and the following year he was tried in a special criminal court in Paris for complicity in the assassinations of Charles Ray and Yaakov Barsimentov in 1982, as well as for the attempted assassination of a third individual in 1984.

Two months after Abdallah was sentenced to life imprisonment, the actual perpetrators of those attacks were identified as being linked to Iran.

Abdallah did not acknowledge his involvement in the two assassinations, which he classified as acts of "resistance" against "Israeli and American oppression" during the Lebanese Civil War (1975 - 1990) and the Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon in 1978.

Except for a small number of supporters who continued to demonstrate every year in front of Abdallah's prison and a few leftist parliamentarians, the detainee became forgotten over the years, having once been in the 1980s France's number one enemy and one of its most famous prisoners.