A French court examined on Thursday whether to release Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, a Lebanese activist jailed in France since 1984 for his role in the assassinations of an American and an Israeli diplomat two years earlier. Now 74, he has been eligible for parole since 1999 – but despite more than a dozen requests and a conditional release order in 2023, Abdallah remains behind bars. Why?
The Paris Court of Appeal said Thursday it would issue its ruling on 17 July in what is Abdallah's umpteenth request for release.
Abdallah was arrested in 1984 in connection with the killings of US military attaché Charles Robert Ray and Israeli diplomat Yacov Barsimantov in Paris. While he was not the gunman, he was sentenced to life in prison in 1987 for complicity in their murders.
The assassinations were claimed by the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Factions (LARF) – the Marxist-Communist pro-Palestinian militant group Abdallah founded in 1978 after he was wounded during Israel’s invasion of Lebanon.
LARF had ties to other leftist guerilla movements such as Italy’s Red Brigades and Germany’s Red Army Faction.
Abdallah, a former guerilla with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, has never denied his political motivations, calling himself a “fighter” rather than a “criminal".
Neither has he expressed remorse. "The path I followed was imposed on me by the human rights abuses perpetrated against the Palestinians," he said at his 1987 trial.
Conditional release denied
Most convicts serving life sentences in France are freed after less than 30 years. Abdallah has now been imprisoned for 41.
A 2021 ruling by the European Court of Human Rights stated that life sentences with eligibility for parole only after 40 years were incompatible with European law.
While Abdallah has been able to apply for parole since 1999, his 11 bids have been denied.
In November 2024, a French court ordered his release, providing he left France. But France’s anti-terror prosecutors, arguing he had not changed his political views, appealed the decision and it was suspended.
Ahead of another appeal court hearing in February this year, 11 Lebanese MPs called on France to immediately release him. But the trial was postponed until 19 June after the court said it needed more time.
Abdullah’s lawyer, Jean-Louis Chalanset, argued his client was being singled out. “The stance of the court risks creating a de facto life imprisonment,” he said.
He accused the judiciary of “pettiness,” after it insisted Abdallah pay the victims' families around €16,000 in compensation.
Abdallah has refused to pay compensation directly to the United States. "I will never indemnify the country that drops bombs on Palestinian and Lebanese children," he reportedly told the court.
Chalanset also insisted on the fact that other extremist groups active in the 1970s and 1980s – including "politicial prisoners" with the French group Action Directe, or Corsican and Basque militants – have been released.
French court orders release of Lebanese militant held since 1984
US interference
Abdallah’s case has become a cause célèbre among some left-wing MPs, activists and human rights defenders. In October 2024, Nobel laureate Annie Ernaux said in a piece in communist daily L'Humanite that his detention "shamed France".
A number of his supporters claim the real reason for his continued detention lies not in the courts, but in Washington.
“The Americans have interferred in French sovereignty since the beginning,” said Lebanese journalist Pierre Abi Saab. “It’s an imperialist mindset, a kind of revenge. Georges Abdallah is paying for all peoples who have resisted US hegemony," he told RFI.
US interference is well-documented. In a 1986 declassified US memo, diplomats warned of potential attacks on American interests if Abdallah wasn’t prosecuted.
Former US diplomat Steve Kashkett, who handled anti-terrorism at the US embassy in Paris in the 1980s, confirms Washington’s deep involvement. “When I arrived at the embassy in 1986, Abdallah became my top priority,” he told RFI. "At that stage, it was clear to us that the French government, which was seeking to avoid Middle Eastern terrorism against French targets, had absolutely no intention of aggressively prosecuting Abdallah."
Washington therefore decided to intervene directly, with the US becoming a civil party in the case and hiring renowned French lawyer Georges Kiejman to represent its interests.
While the second diplomat assassinated by LARF was Israeli, Tel Aviv never formally joined the case as a civil party. “I remember Israel considering it,” Kashkett noted, “but it wasn’t necessary because we were doing it. Israel counted on the US to do the job.”
'Unique case'
From 1986, the American government took an active role in blocking Abdallah’s release. Another declassified document noted that attacks against US targets were "possible given America’s major role in securing Abdallah’s trial".
In 2013, WikiLeaks revealed that then-secretary of state Hillary Clinton sent a direct message to France’s foreign minister Laurent Fabius, urging him to find a way to prevent Abdallah’s release, even after a court had approved it. That same year, then-interior minister Manuel Valls refused to sign the expulsion order that would have allowed Abdallah to return to Lebanon.
Despite this, Kashkett insists that America’s actions should not be seen as interference given the US was a civil party during the trial. "Since the French invited the Americans to give our opinion, I don’t think we can speak of interference or pressure,” he said.
Others disagree. One of Abdallah’s early lawyers, Jean-Paul Mazurier, later revealed he was working for French intelligence at the time.
"We bowed down to the United States, which opposed his release," Mazurier told France Inter radio in 2024.
The late Jacques Vergès, another of Abdallah’s lawyers, referred in court to an “intolerable American diktat”, describing France as “America’s whore” in court documents.
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Awaiting his release
After more than four decades, France may be growing tired of the case, says Abi Saab.
“France wants to get rid of this embarrassing case but it’s unclear whether they have the political will. There’s intimidation, interference. Since 1999, Georges Abdallah has been held hostage outside the rule of law. It’s a unique case.”
A small but vocal group continues to advocate for his release. There were demonstrations in Toulouse in February, near the prison where he is held. A protest planned in Paris was, however, banned due to concerns over “a tense social and international context", notably in Gaza.
While Abdallah refuses to compensate the US himself, he has agreed to Lebanon paying damages.
Chalanset, his lawyer, confirmed this week that the funds are now available should the court demand them. “The conditions of the court are met,” he said on 17 June. “We await his release.”
