French Court Grants Release to Georges Abdallah After 40 Years

Paris, July 17 (AP) A French court has granted the conditional release of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, a Lebanese pro-Palestinian communist militant, after more than four decades of imprisonment in France. He was detained on charges of complicity in the 1982 murders of two diplomats in Paris, one American and one Israeli.

The Paris Court of Appeal decided that Abdallah, arrested in 1984 and subsequently serving a life sentence, will be freed next Friday, provided he departs from France and never returns. According to judicial authorities, his departure is mandatory for his release.

His lawyer, Jean-Louis Chalanset, indicated that Abdallah intends to return to Lebanon and remains committed to his beliefs as “a communist militant supporting the Palestinian cause and opposing Israel’s invasion of his homeland.” Chalanset emphasized that Abdallah holds the record as the longest-held political prisoner in Europe.

“He has never renounced his convictions,” Chalanset stated, highlighting the US authorities' efforts to persuade the Paris court not to release the 74-year-old. “Thus, this marks a political win, after nearly 41 years of confinement, against the US.” In 1987, Abdallah received a life sentence for his role in the assassinations of U.S. Army Lt. Col. Charles Ray, who was serving in Paris as an assistant military attaché, and Israeli diplomat Yacov Barsimantov.

Lt. Col. Ray, born in New York City and a decorated Vietnam veteran, was married with two children. He was shot with a single bullet to the head near his family home in western Paris on January 18, 1982.

Sharon Ray, his widow, spoke at Abdallah’s trial, appealing to the French judges: “No one on Earth deserves to die like that, to be executed like that.” (AP)

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