Lebanese activist released after 40 years in French jail

Lannemezan: One of France’s longest-held inmates, the pro-Palestinian Lebanese activist Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, was released from prison and deported on Friday, after more than 40 years behind bars for the killings of two diplomats.

At around 3:40am, a convoy of six vehicles left the Lannemezan penitentiary with lights flashing.

A source close to the case confirmed to AFP that 74-year-old Abdallah had left the prison.

Hours later, he was placed on a plane bound for Lebanon, an airport source told AFP.

Abdallah was detained in 1984 and sentenced to life in prison in 1987 for his involvement in the murders of US military attache Charles Robert Ray and Israeli diplomat Yacov Barsimantov in Paris.

The Paris Court of Appeal had ordered his release “effective July 25” on the condition that he leave French territory and never return.

While he had been eligible for release since 1999, his previous requests were denied with the United States - a civil party to the case - consistently opposing him leaving prison.

Inmates serving life sentences in France are typically freed after fewer than 30 years.

Abdallah’s lawyer, Jean-Louis Chalanset, visited for a final time on Thursday. “He seemed very happy about his upcoming release, even though he knows he is returning to the Middle East in an extremely tough context for Lebanese and Palestinian populations,” Chalanset told AFP.

AFP visited Abdallah last week after the court’s release decision, accompanying a lawmaker to the detention centre.

The founder of the Lebanese Revolutionary Armed Factions (FARL) - a long-disbanded Marxist anti-Israel group - said for more than four decades he had continued to be a “militant with a struggle”.

‘Past symbol’

After his arrest in 1984, French police discovered submachine guns and transceiver stations in one of his Paris apartments.

The appeals court in February noted that the FARL “had not committed a violent action since 1984” and that Abdallah “today represented a past symbol of the Palestinian struggle”.

The appeals judges also found the length of his detention “disproportionate” to the crimes and given his age.

Abdallah’s family said they plan to meet him at Beirut airport’s “honour lounge” before heading to their hometown of Kobayat in northern Lebanon where a reception is planned.