28 Years behind French Bars, George Abdullah into Freedom

Local Editor

Georges Ibrahim Abdullah, a pro-Palestinian Lebanese political prisoner who has spent 28 years in French prison, will be released and expelled from France, French media reported.
Thursday's court decision upheld a December ruling, which had been appealed by the general prosecutor. As part of his conditional release, Abdullah, 62, is required to leave France before January 14.
In details, Abdullah joined the Syrian Social Nationalist Party and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in the 1960s, before joining the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Factions.
He was arrested in 1984 under a vague accusation of the murders of Charles Robert Ray, an American military attaché, and Yacov Barsimentov, an "Israeli" embassy advisor, in Paris in 1982.
In 1987, he was condemned to life in prison for complicity in the assassinations, even though the court was not able to present concrete evidence against him. A former director of the French intelligence agency, Yves Bonnet, later said that Abdullah was the victim of "an illegal intelligence conspiracy."
Over the years, Abdullah became a miscarriages of justice for resistance. He became eligible for parole after 18 years in prison, but each of his seven applications for release were turned down since 1999, a major breach of French legal procedures and the European Convention on Human Rights.
This came as the United States and "Israel" pressured France over the years to prevent Abdullah's release, under the pretext that he had never apologized or expressed regret for the murders.

Meanwhile, US Ambassador to France Charles Rivkin criticized the decision to grant him parole, arguing that Abdullah never expressed remorse and could yet be a threat if released.
For his part, Abdullah's lawyer welcomed the ruling and said he hoped the government would not give in to US pressure by refusing to expel him.
"I hope that we have an independent enough government to expel him," said the lawyer, Jacques Verges.
"I welcome this ruling as I had asked the French courts not to act like a whore for the American pimp," said Verges, who has repeatedly blamed US influence for France's refusal to set Abdullah free.
He further mentioned that Abdullah was in "good mental and physical health" and was hoping to return to Lebanon where his family runs a school where he could work.

Verges has defended prominent clients like Carlos and Slobodan Milosevic.

"His imprisonment is a scandal, a shame for France," Verges told French channel iTélé Thursday. "It is time for French justice to act, not like the whore of an American pimp, but like an independent justice."
Abdullah is expected to return to Lebanon once released.


Source: News Agencies, Edited by moqawama.org