<\/p>\n
Last week, the Paris Court of Appeals issued its decision to release the Lebanese militant Georges Abdallah on July 25, on the condition that he leave French territory and never return.<\/p>\n
Abdallah, now 74 years old, was sentenced to life in prison in 1987 for allegedly being complicit in the assassination of an American and an Israeli diplomat in Paris in 1982. Despite having been eligible for conditional release for the past 25 years, 12 applications he submitted were rejected, making him one of the longest-held political prisoners in Europe.<\/p>\n
Although the Paris Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office announced last Monday its intention to appeal the release before the Court of Cassation, this appeal does not suspend the execution of the ruling and therefore will not prevent Abdallah from leaving France and returning to his homeland.<\/p>\n
The appellate judges deemed his continued detention \u201cdisproportionate\u201d to the acts attributed to him, especially considering his advanced age, and stated that Abdallah had become \u201ca symbol of the past for the Palestinian struggle.\u201d Their ruling noted that the \u00abLebanese Revolutionary Armed Factions,\u00bb founded by Abdallah and composed of Marxist, secular, and pro-Palestinian militants, had not carried out any armed activity since 1984.<\/p>\n
The judges regretted that Abdallah had shown no \u201cremorse or sympathy for the victims,\u201d but noted that he had expressed his desire to spend \u201cthe remainder of his days\u201d in his village in northern Lebanon and possibly engage in local politics, emphasizing that he no longer posed a threat to public safety.<\/p>\n
The Unbroken Life of a Militant<\/p>\n
Georges Abdallah was wounded during the Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon in 1978 and subsequently joined the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, led by George Habash. Later, along with members of his family, he founded the \u00abLebanese Revolutionary Armed Factions,\u00bb an anti-imperialist Marxist group that claimed responsibility for five targeted operations in Europe between 1981 and 1982, four of which resulted in fatalities in France.<\/p>\n
In 1986, he was sentenced to four years in prison in Lyon for conspiracy and weapons possession. The following year, he was retried and convicted for complicity in the assassinations of U.S. diplomat Charles Ray and Israeli diplomat Yaakov Barsimentov, as well as the attempted assassination of a third diplomat in 1984.<\/p>\n
Although French authorities later identified the real perpetrators of the attacks and established links to Iran, Abdallah remained imprisoned. He refused to admit guilt and framed the accusations as part of his \u201cresistance\u201d against Israeli occupation and U.S. policy in the region, particularly during the Lebanese Civil War and successive Zionist invasions.<\/p>\n
Return to the Homeland\u2026 and the Voice of Resistance Continues<\/p>\n
Abdallah arrived in Beirut yesterday, where he was welcomed by comrades, loved ones, and delegations from various Lebanese national forces and parties. His first statement was directed to Gaza, calling on the Arab masses to mobilize to break the siege\u2014especially appealing to the Egyptian people to lift the blockade at the Rafah crossing.<\/p>\n
Despite spending 41 years behind bars, Georges Abdallah has not changed. He remained steadfast in his positions, unyielding, refusing to recognize Israel or back down from his commitment to the Palestinian cause. He expressed no regret, made no compromises. He remained a symbol of resistance and steadfastness in the face of occupation and imperialism.<\/p>\n
In Conclusion<\/p>\n
We wish comrade Georges a peaceful and free life among his people and comrades. His release from prison is not the end of a story, but the beginning of a new chapter of struggle. Just as Georges Abdallah was a symbol behind bars, he remains today a symbol in the streets\u2014a living testament that resistance is not a crime, but a right.<\/p>\n
Georges Abdallah\u2026 Finally free, though he never ceased to be free.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Last week, the Paris Court of Appeals issued its decision to release the Lebanese militant Georges Abdallah on July 25, on the condition that he leave French territory and never return. Abdallah, now 74 years old, was sentenced to life in prison in 1987 for allegedly being complicit in the assassination of an American […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22818,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[308],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uit-ci.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22810"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uit-ci.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uit-ci.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uit-ci.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uit-ci.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22810"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/uit-ci.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22825,"href":"https:\/\/uit-ci.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22810\/revisions\/22825"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uit-ci.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uit-ci.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uit-ci.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uit-ci.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}