Georges Abdallah, detained in France for forty-one years, to be released soon
A symbol of the struggle against the Israeli occupation of Palestine and American imperialism for some, and a terrorist for others, Lebanese activist Georges Abdallah is one of France's longest-serving prisoners. His release, welcomed by his family and supporters, is expected on July 25.
The announcement of his impending release has made the rounds of the international press, particularly in the Middle East and especially in his native Lebanon. After more than four decades behind bars, pro-Palestinian activist Georges Ibrahim Abdallah will finally be released on July 25, a French judicial source announced on Thursday, July 17.
A "symbol" of the struggle for Palestine for some, a "terrorist" for others, he is one of the longest-serving prisoners in France. This former leader of a small group of pro-Palestinian Lebanese Marxists was imprisoned in France in 1984, before being sentenced to life imprisonment three years later "for his role in the 1982 assassination of the American military attaché in Paris, Charles Ray, and the Israeli diplomat Yacov Barsimantov, and in the attempted assassination of the American consul general Robert Homme, in Strasbourg, in 1984," recalls the pan-Arab newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat .
Since then, he has seen around ten requests for release fail, under pressure from the United States, a civil party in the trial against him, and from Israel, but also from “political interference,” underlines the Lebanese left-wing site Janoubia .
“The path I have followed has been dictated by the violations perpetrated against Palestine,” he told the judges.
Courrier International
