France court orders release of Georges Ibrahim after 40 years in jail

PARIS: A French appeals court Thursday ordered the release of pro-Palestinian Lebanese militant Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, imprisoned for 40 years for the 1982 killings of two foreign diplomats.

Abdallah, 74, is one of the longest-serving prisoners in France, where most convicts on life sentences are freed after less than 30 years. He has been up for release for 25 years, but the United States — a civil party to the case — has consistently opposed him leaving prison.

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.

Lebanese of Maronite Christian heritage, he has always insisted he is not a “criminal” but a “fighter” for the rights of Palestinians, whom he said were targeted, along with Lebanon, by the United States and Israel.

The Paris Appeals Court ordered he be freed from a prison in the south of France on July 25, on condition that he leave French territory and never return.