Lebanese militant who spent 40 years in jail released by French court. Who is Georges Ibrahim Abdallah and why is his case unique?
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Georges Ibrahim Abdallah is one of the longest politcal prisoners in France Photograph: (Others)
Abdallah, in prison since 1984, was convicted in 1987 and sentenced to life for complicity in the killings of Charles Robert Ray, a US military attaché and Yacov Barsimantov, an Israeli diplomat.
A French court on Thursday (July 17) ordered the release of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, a Lebanese activist and founder of the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Factions (LARF), after four decades in jail. His case is a unique one, as 74-year-old Abdallah is one of the longest-serving political prisoners in France. He has been eligible for parole for decades now, but was never released, reportedly due to American and Israeli pressure. Abdallah has been a focus of international human rights advocates, with protests held in several parts of the world, and Nobel laureate Annie Ernaux saying his imprisonment “shamed France”.
Why was Georges Ibrahim Abdallah in jail for four decades?
Abdallah, in prison since 1984, was convicted in 1987 and sentenced to life for complicity in the killings of Charles Robert Ray, a US military attaché, and Yacov Barsimantov, an Israeli diplomat. Though Abdallah was not the shooter, the murders were claimed by his group LARF.
Georges Ibrahim Abdallah was freed after four decades. What is LARF?
LARF is a Marxist-Communist and pro-Palestinian militant group founded by Abdallah in 1978 after he was injured during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. It has links with Italy’s Red Brigades and Germany’s Red Army Faction. Before founding LARF, Abdallah was a guerrilla with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
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Abdallah freed: 'I am a fighter, not a criminal'
The trial on his final release lasted for weeks. At the trial, Abdallah declared: "The path I followed was imposed on me by the human rights abuses perpetrated against the Palestinians", while identifying himself as a fighter, not a criminal. He never expressed remorse for the murders.
He also refused to give a court-ordered 16,000 euro compensation for the murders, saying, “I will never indemnify the country that drops bombs on Palestinian and Lebanese children.”
Abdallah has now been imprisoned for 41 years
While most prisoners who are sentenced to life in prison are released in under 30 years in France, Abdallah has spent 41 years behind bars.
The European Court of Human Rights said in 2021 that French life sentences with parole only after 40 years violate European law.
Aballah was eligible for parole since 1999, but 11 applications made by him were rejected.
In November 2023, a French court granted Abdallah conditional release. The condition was that he leave France. But anti-terror prosecutors appealed the decision, citing his unchanged political views. Eventually, the decision was suspended.
