Pro-Palestinian convicted of release after 40 years

Georges Abdullah, 74-year-old teacher Lebanese, who became the left symbol of the Palestinian case, should be released on Friday after 41 years.

Described by his lawyer as “a man who spent the longest time in prison for events related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict”, it is estimated that Abdullah will be sent directly to Beirut.

Condemned in 1987 for complicity in the killings of two diplomats in France – one American, one Israelis – he gradually forgotten the general public.

But its release remained the cause of the village for activists who remained Marxist-Lenin, with whom he was still identifying.

His strict appearance of the bearded face continued to peer from banners at left demonstrations; And once a year participants of the action to demand freedom outside the prison in the Pyrenees. Three French municipalities from the left leadership announced him an “honorary citizen”.

Although he has the right to parole since 1999, he saw that consistent requests for freedom refused. According to supporters, this happened from the pressure on the French government from the US and Israel.

The recently interviewed by the French news agency AFP in his cell in Lanemazan’s prison, he said he became fascinated, focusing on the Palestinian “fight”.

“If I didn’t have it … Well, 40 years old, it can turn your brain into a slurry,” he said.

On the walls of his camera, Abdulla kept a picture of the revolutionary Che Guevara in the 1960s and postcards from fans around the world. The table was covered with a bunch of newspapers.

Born in 1951 in the Christian family in northern Lebanon, at the end of the 1970s, he helped to create Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Frats (LARF), a small Marxist group dedicated to the fight against Israel and his closest ally, the US.

At the time, Lebanon was involved in the civil war. In 1978 and again in 1982, Israel invaded South Lebanon to fight Palestinian fighters.

The Abdali Group decided to achieve Israeli and American purposes in Europe and conducted five attacks in France. In 1982, his members shot dead American diplomat Charles Ray in Strasbourg and Israeli diplomat Jacob Barsimantov in Paris. In addition, the car bomb accused Larfe, killed two French bomb experts.

Abdullah was arrested in Lyon in 1984. The French intelligence officer laughed, he thought that Israeli killers were behind him and retreated to the police. Initially, he was only accused of false passports and a criminal association.

Soon a French citizen was abducted in Northern Lebanon, and the French secret service entered into talks through Algeria exchange engineers.

A French citizen was released, but before Abdalla was released by the police in Paris, they found a weapon cache in their apartment, including a pistol used to destroy diplomats. It made his release impossible.

Two years later, a number of terrorist attacks were injured in the trial of Paris, killing 13 people. They were accused of politicians and media about the allies of Abdals who tried to put pressure on France to release it. It was later found that they were actually the work of the Lebanese Shiite Group “Hezbolla” as directed by Iran.

In court, he denied the involvement in the killings, but defended his legitimacy. He was given a lifetime.

With more than 10 Refresons since 1999, only one has come to success. But in 2013, then, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrote to the French government, expressing hope that he could find a “way to challenge the legality” of the court’s release.

Later her message was announced by Wikileaks.

Then the Interior Minister Manuel Vals refused to sign the exclusion order, which was conditional of Abdal.

This year, the Court of Appeal decided that the duration of the detention was “disproportionate” and that he no longer pose a threat. It again said that his release should be immediately accompanied by expulsion from France.

“It is a victory of justice, but it is also a political scandal that has not been released before, thanks to the US behavior and consistent French presidents,” said his lawyer Jean-Louis Chalaset.

Among the people who campaigned for his release was the winner of the 2022 Nobel Literature Prize, Annie Erna, who stated that “the victim of state justice in which France should be ashamed.”

Yves Bonet, the Chief of Intelligence, who tried to agree on the exchange of Abdullah in 1985, and is now a member of the right -wing national action, stated that “it was worse than the serial killer,” and that “the United States was obsessed with keeping him in prison.”

According to the Le Monde newspaper report, no Palestinian prisoner – even those who have condemned a life imprisonment in Israel – served for more than 40 years in prison. Abdullah served 41.