A French court on Thursday ruled in favour of the release of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, a pro-Palestinian Lebanese militant jailed for the 1982 murders of two foreign diplomats in Paris.

Paris

A French court has ruled to release Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, a Lebanese national who has been imprisoned since 1987 for his role in the 1982 assassinations of American and Israeli diplomats in Paris. Abdallah, a former leader of the Lebanese Revolutionary Armed Factions, has consistently denied involvement in the murders but described them as acts of resistance.

After multiple denied requests over the years, the court confirmed Abdallah's release on the condition that he leaves France for Beirut. His supporters have long campaigned for his freedom, and the court's decision ends his four-decade incarceration. Abdallah is expected to depart for Lebanon upon his release from prison in southwest France.

French court rules in favour of releasing Lebanese Abdallah

His face has been present at pro-Palestinian demonstrations for decades. And for his supporters, he embodies the biases of the French government. We stand with George Abdallah and the Palestinian and Lebanese people in their legitimate struggle against Israeli colonialism and the complicity, notably of France, in the crimes happening in Gaza. Lebanese national Georges Ibrahim Abdallah was sentenced to life in French prison in 1987. He was found guilty of complicity in the March 1982 assassination of two diplomats in Paris, American Charles Robert Ray and Israeli Yaacov Marcimintov. A former Marxist teacher, Abdallah embraced the Palestinian cause in the 1970s while frequenting Arab nationalist circles in Beirut. He got involved in politics and in 1979 became the leader of the pro-Marxist Lebanese Revolutionary Armed Factions, a now defunct Lebanese nationalist guerrilla group that carried out a series of attacks on French, American and Israeli officials. Abdallah has always denied being involved in the diplomats' murders, but also calls the killings an act of resistance against American and Israeli oppression. He should have been released 10 years ago and for 10 years he's been denied. Why? Because he refuses to kneel. His relatives never stopped campaigning for his release, but all requests for his conditional release were rejected until 2013, when the French courts finally agreed as long as an expulsion order was issued. The measure was never implemented by then-Interior Minister Manuel Valls. But Thursday, the Paris Court of Appeal announced the end of his four-decade incarceration. The court has confirmed his release for July 25th. The only condition is that he leaves Paris for Beirut, which he has always wanted, of course. Abdallah is expected to leave the country as soon as he's released from prison in southwest France.

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