{"id":290501,"date":"2025-07-25T11:52:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T11:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/290501\/"},"modified":"2025-07-25T11:52:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T11:52:10","slug":"pro-palestinian-lebanese-fighter-released-from-french-prison-after-40-years-politics-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/290501\/","title":{"rendered":"Pro-Palestinian Lebanese fighter released from French prison after 40 years | Politics News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Georges Ibrahim Abdallah flown to Lebanon from France after incarceration ends.<\/p>\n

France has released Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, a pro-Palestinian Lebanese fighter jailed since 1984, and put him on a flight to Beirut after he spent nearly four decades behind bars.<\/p>\n

Shortly before 3:40am (01:30 GMT) on Friday, a convoy of six vehicles with flashing lights was seen leaving the Lannemezan prison in southern France, according to journalists with the AFP news agency on the ground. A source confirmed the 74-year-old had been freed and later boarded a flight to Lebanon.<\/p>\n

Abdallah, who was convicted in 1987 for his role in the killings of United States military attache Charles Robert Ray and Israeli diplomat Yacov Barsimantov in Paris, had long been eligible for release. However, repeated applications were rejected, often due to pressure from the US, which was a civil party in Abdallah\u2019s case.<\/p>\n

Last month, the Paris Court of Appeal ruled in favour of his release<\/a>, effective on Friday, on the condition that Abdallah leave French territory and never return.<\/p>\n

His lawyer, Jean-Louis Chalanset, told AFP that the former fighter appeared \u201cvery happy\u201d during their final visit \u201ceven though he knows he is returning to the Middle East in an extremely tough context for Lebanese and Palestinian populations\u201d.<\/p>\n

Abdallah, the founder of the now-defunct Lebanese Revolutionary Armed Factions, had declared during a recent visit by a lawmaker that he remained a \u201cmilitant with a struggle\u201d. French police uncovered submachine guns and communication equipment in one of his flats at the time of his arrest.<\/p>\n

Abdallah has never expressed regret for his actions and has always insisted he is a \u201cfighter\u201d who has battled for the rights of Palestinians and is not a \u201ccriminal\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Paris court described his behaviour in prison as irreproachable and said in November that he posed \u201cno serious risk in terms of committing new terrorism acts\u201d.<\/p>\n

The appeals court cited the length of Abdallah\u2019s detention and his advanced age, calling his continued imprisonment \u201cdisproportionate\u201d. In France, inmates serving life sentences are typically released after less than 30 years.<\/p>\n

Abdallah\u2019s family said they would greet him at Beirut\u2019s airport before travelling to his hometown of Kobayat in northern Lebanon, where a reception has been planned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Georges Ibrahim Abdallah flown to Lebanon from France after incarceration ends. France has released Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290502,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[6178,30,188,2000,299,36,4582,837,838,839,12,1814,285,18939],"class_list":{"0":"post-290501","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-conflict","9":"tag-courts","10":"tag-crime","11":"tag-eu","12":"tag-europe","13":"tag-france","14":"tag-human-rights","15":"tag-israel","16":"tag-lebanon","17":"tag-middle-east","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-palestine","20":"tag-politics","21":"tag-prison"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114913735109317333","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}