France. Lebanese man convicted of killing diplomats released

A French court on Thursday ordered the release of Lebanese pro-Palestinian activist Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, convicted in 1987 of the assassination of Israeli and American diplomats in Paris, and one of France's longest-serving prisoners.

The release will take place on July 25, according to the appeal court's decision during a closed hearing in Paris, in the absence of Georges Abdallah, 74, who is being held in Lannemezan prison (Hautes-Pyrénées).

Abdallah was arrested in 1984 following the assassinations of US military attaché Charles Robert Ray and Israeli diplomat Yacov Barsimantov in Paris.

According to the French newspaper RFI, Abdallah was not the shooter, but was sentenced to life in prison for complicity in the murders.

The killings were claimed by the Lebanese Revolutionary Armed Factions (LARF) — the pro-Palestinian Marxist-communist militant group that Abdallah founded in 1978 after being wounded during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon.

According to the same source, the LARF had links with other left-wing guerrilla movements, such as the Red Brigades of Italy and the Red Army of Germany.

Abdallah, a former guerrilla fighter with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, never denied his political motivations, declaring himself a “combatant” rather than a “criminal,” nor did he ever express remorse.

“The path I followed was imposed on me by the human rights violations perpetrated against the Palestinians,” he said at his trial in 1987, as quoted by the newspaper.

Most life inmates in France are released after less than 30 years, but Abdallah has already been in prison for 41 years .

Although Abdallah may have been eligible for parole since 1999, his 11 requests have been denied.

In November 2024, a French court ordered his release, provided he leave France. But French anti-terrorism prosecutors appealed, arguing there had been no change of political opinion, and the ruling was suspended.

In February of this year, 11 Lebanese MPs asked France to release him, and the Paris court made the decision this Thursday.