Georges Abdallah to walk free after 41 years in French prison
A French appeals court has approved the release of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, a Lebanese leftist activist imprisoned for 41 years over the killings of two diplomats in the early 1980s.
His conditional release, set for July 25, 2025, comes after decades of legal delays, international pressure, and repeated parole blockages.
Abdallah, now 74, is one of Europe's longest-held prisoners. He was arrested in Lyon on October 24, 1984, and later sentenced to life in prison for complicity in the assassinations of US military attaché Charles R. Ray and Israeli diplomat Yacov Bar-Simantov, both gunned down in Paris in 1982. French authorities also linked Abdallah to an attempted assassination targeting a US consul in Strasbourg in 1984.
A former teacher and member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Abdallah co-founded the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Factions (LARF), a Marxist-Leninist group that coordinated attacks in France during the early 1980s. The group claimed responsibility for the killings, citing retaliation for US and Israeli operations in Lebanon.
Although Abdallah became eligible for parole in 1999, his release has been consistently blocked by French authorities, often following US diplomatic intervention. In both 2003 and late 2024, French courts approved his conditional release based on deportation to Lebanon. Each time, prosecutors appealed the decisions, invoking new anti-reoffending laws and citing his lack of remorse.
On Thursday, however, a Paris appeals court ruled that Abdallah may be freed and expelled from France, provided he never returns. His attorney, Jean-Louis Chalanset, confirmed that Abdallah plans to return to Lebanon. The court based its decision on his "irreproachable" prison record and judged that he no longer posed a threat of engaging in terrorist activity.
The decision remains subject to further appeal, but legal experts say there is little time for France's Court of Cassation to intervene before his scheduled release.
Abdallah's case has long divided opinion. Supporters in Lebanon and parts of the international left regard him as a political prisoner and a symbol of resistance. The United States and Israel, however, continue to regard him as a terrorist who orchestrated politically motivated murders.
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