After 41 years: Lebanese terrorist freed in France celebrated in Beirut
How did your country report this? Share your view in the comments.
Diverging Reports Breakdown
Infamous Lebanese Terrorist Freed from French Prison After Serving 41 Ye
Lebanese terrorist Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, 74, was released from a French prison on July 25, 2025. He was convicted in the 1982 murders of Israeli diplomat Yaakov Bar-Siman-Tov and U.S. military attaché Charles Robert Ray in Paris. The Paris Court of Appeal ordered his release on July 17, stipulating that he leave France and never return, and he was deported to Beirut. Abdallah founded the Marxist-Leninist Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Factions (LARF) in 1979, aligning with anti-Israeli and pro-Syrian groups.
Abdallah, a former secondary school teacher from northern Lebanon, founded the Marxist-Leninist Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Factions (LARF) in 1979, aligning with anti-Israeli and pro-Syrian groups. The LARF claimed responsibility for the April 3, 1982, killing of Bar-Siman-Tov, a 35-year-old Israeli embassy official shot outside his Paris apartment, and the January 18, 1982, murder of Ray, a 44-year-old U.S. lieutenant colonel killed near his home. The group also attempted to assassinate U.S. Consul Robert O. Homme in Strasbourg in 1984. Abdallah was arrested in Lyon in October 1984 after a police raid uncovered a pistol linked to the murders. In 1987, a French court sentenced him to life for complicity in the attacks.
Ready for more? Subscribe Ready for more? Subscribe
Eligible for parole since 1999, Abdallah faced repeated denials, partly due to U.S. objections. A 2013 release order was blocked, and a November 2024 approval was delayed by an appeal. The July 2025 decision cited his “irreproachable” prison conduct and low risk of recidivism. Israel’s embassy in Paris was dismayed, calling Abdallah a terrorist who should remain imprisoned. The U.S. Department of Justice had warned in 2024 that his release could destabilize Lebanon. Supporters, including French left-wing MPs and Nobel laureate Annie Ernaux, hailed him as a “political prisoner,” celebrating his release as a victory against foreign pressure.
According to Times of Israel, “Abdallah’s lawyer, Jean-Louis Chalanset, visited him for a final time on Thursday. “He seemed very happy about his upcoming release, even though he knows he is returning to the Middle East in an extremely tough context for Lebanese and Palestinian populations,” Chalanset told AFP.
AFP visited Abdallah last week following the court’s release decision, accompanying a lawmaker to the detention center.”
Abdallah’s deportation to Beirut comes amid heightened Middle East tensions, including the Israel-Hamas conflict and clashes with Hezbollah, raising concerns about his potential influence in Lebanon.
George Abdallah returns home after 40 years in French prison
Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, 74, released from prison after more than 40 years. Abdallah was sentenced to life in prison in 1987 for the murders of two diplomats. He had been eligible for release since 1999, but previous requests were denied. In his first public address after being released, Abdallah took aim at Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza, where human rights organisations have warned of mass starvation. He said: “Palestinian children are dying of hunger – this is a disgrace to history and a shame on the Arab masses before their regimes” The Paris Court of Appeal had ordered his release “effective July 25” on the condition that he leave French territory and never return, AFP reports. He will be welcomed by family members on his return to Beirut at the airport’s VIP lounge, an AFP correspondent says.
At around 3:40 am (0140 GMT), a convoy of six vehicles with flashing lights left the Lannemezan prison in southwest France, AFP journalists saw.
Hours later, the 74-year-old was placed on a plane and deported back to Lebanon, to be welcomed by family members on his return to Beirut at the airport’s VIP lounge.
Dozens of supporters, some waving Palestinian or Lebanese Communist Party flags, gathered near the arrivals hall to give him a hero’s reception, an AFP correspondent said.
One supporter, activist and writer Mohammad Shuqair, told The New Arab’s Arabic language sister site Alaraby Aljadeed: “We draw strength, morale, and confidence from Abdallah after 41 years in prison, even though he could have been released years ago were it not for American-Israeli pressure.”
He emphasised that “we gain energy and positivity from him to renew our activism, our struggle, and our resistance against the enemy seeking to destroy the region and annihilate the Palestinian people.”
In his first public address after being released, Abdallah took aim at Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza, where human rights organisations have warned of mass starvation.
“Resistance must continue and escalate,” Abdallah said, adding: “Palestinian children are dying of hunger – this is a disgrace to history and a shame on the Arab masses before their regimes.”
“Israel is living through the final chapters of its existence – there is no other chapter left for it,” he said.
Abdallah’s family had said previously they would take him to their hometown of Kobayat, in northern Lebanon, where a reception is planned.
Abdallah was detained in 1984 and sentenced to life in prison in 1987 for his involvement in the murders of US military attache Charles Robert Ray and Israeli diplomat Yacov Barsimantov in Paris.
‘Past symbol’
The Paris Court of Appeal had ordered his release “effective July 25” on the condition that he leave French territory and never return.
While he had been eligible for release since 1999, his previous requests were denied with the United States – a civil party to the case – consistently opposing him leaving prison.
Inmates serving life sentences in France are typically freed after fewer than 30 years.
Abdallah’s lawyer, Jean-Louis Chalanset, visited him for a final time on Thursday.
“He seemed very happy about his upcoming release, even though he knows he is returning to the Middle East in an extremely tough context for Lebanese and Palestinian populations,” Chalanset told AFP.
The charge d’affaires of the Lebanese Embassy in Paris, Ziad Taan, who saw Georges Abdallah before his departure, told AFP that he was “well, in good health, very happy to return to Lebanon to his family and to regain his freedom”.
AFP visited Abdallah last week after the court’s release decision, accompanying a lawmaker to the detention centre.
The founder of the Lebanese Revolutionary Armed Factions (FARL) – a long-disbanded Marxist anti-Israel group – said for more than four decades he had continued to be a “militant with a struggle”.
After his arrest in 1984, French police discovered submachine guns and transceiver stations in one of his Paris apartments.
The appeals court in February noted that the FARL “had not committed a violent action since 1984” and that Abdallah “today represented a past symbol of the Palestinian struggle”.
The appeals judges also found the length of his detention “disproportionate” to his crimes, and pointed to his age.
Georges Abdallah, ‘the longest prisoner of Israeli-Palestinian conflict’, freed by France after 41 years
Georges Abdallah, a 74-year-old Lebanese schoolteacher who became a left-wing symbol for the Palestinian cause, has been released by France on Friday. Abdallah was convicted in 1987 of complicity in the murders, in France, of two diplomats – one American, one Israeli. Still, his release remained a cause celebre among activists in the Marxist-Leninist left with whom he still identifies. “If I had not had that… well, 40 years – it can turn your brain to mush,” he was quoted saying of his time in prison. He was arrested in Lyon in 1984, he believed he was being pursued by Israeli hitmen and turned himself in at a police station. At the trial, Abdallah had insisted on not being involved in the killings but rationalised their rightness.
Abdallah was convicted in 1987 of complicity in the murders, in France, of two diplomats – one American, one Israeli. Still, his release remained a cause celebre among activists in the Marxist-Leninist left with whom he still identifies.
His bearded face, scowling behind banners, still looked out over left-wing protests; and every year demonstrators would assemble to call for his liberty outside his Pyrenean prison. Three left-wing French municipalities declared him an “honorary citizen”.
Though eligible for parole since 1999, he had successive applications for freedom being turned down. This, according to his supporters, was due to pressure exerted by the US and Israel on the French government. Interviewed recently by the French news agency AFP at his cell in Lannemazan jail, he said he had kept sane by focusing on the Palestinian “struggle”. “If I had not had that… well, 40 years – it can turn your brain to mush,” he was quoted saying.
On the walls of his prison cell, Abdallah had a photo of Che Guevara, a 1960s revolutionary, and postcards from admirers everywhere. A desk was piled with stacks of newspapers. Born in 1951 to a Christian family in northern Lebanon, in the late 1970s Abdallah assisted in establishing the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Factions (LARF) – a tiny Marxist organisation committed to fighting Israel and its closest ally, the United States.
Lebanon was mired in a civil war at the time. In 1978 and once more in 1982 Israel occupied south Lebanon to fight Palestinian militants based there. Abdallah’s group planned to attack Israeli and American targets in Europe, and attempted five attacks in France. In 1982, members of the group shot and murdered US diplomat Charles Ray in Strasbourg, and Israeli diplomat Yakov Barsimantov in Paris.
Further, a car bomb attributed to LARF killed two French bomb-disposal technicians.
Abdallah was arrested in Lyon in 1984. Tailled by French intelligence agents, he believed he was being pursued by Israeli hitmen and turned himself in at a police station. At first, he was charged with merely possessing false passports and criminal association. Soon after a French national was taken hostage in northern Lebanon, and the French secret service moved into a negotiation through Algeria to stage an exchange.
The French citizen was released, but the night before Abdallah was to be released police in Paris discovered a stash of weapons at his apartment, including the gun that had been used to murder the diplomats. This rendered his release impossible.
Two years on during the build up to his trial, Paris was targeted by a series of terrorist attacks which claimed 13 lives. These were attributed by politicians and the media to supporters of Abdallah attempting to bully France into releasing him. It later transpired that in reality they were carried out by the Lebanese Shia militant group Hezbollah, on behalf of Iran.
At the trial, Abdallah had insisted on not being involved in the killings but rationalised their rightness. He was sentenced to life.
Europe’s Longest-Held Political Prisoner to Be Released After Four Decades
Georges Ibrahim Abdallah is set to be released from a French prison and deported to Lebanon on July 25. Abdallah, 74, was sentenced to life in prison in 1987 for complicity in the assassinations of American and Israeli diplomats in Paris in 1982. The release order, granted conditionally with deportation, marks the end of his twelfth bid for freedom and follows years of international advocacy and grassroots mobilization. His supporters hailed him as a political martyr, unbroken by time, or diplomatic manipulation or manipulation by the French government or the French judiciary. The decision concludes a prolonged legal and political battle that spanned 41 years, sparking celebration in Lebanon and reigniting discussions about political imprisonment, colonial legacy, and the instrumentalization of justice in the West. The court accepted that €16,000 set aside in Abdallah’s prison account, partially raised through donations, could serve as symbolic restitution, thereby satisfying the final condition for his release. The case raised serious questions about judicial independence in France, particularly after declassified documents revealed U.S. pressure played a key role in thwarting several court-ordered release decisions.
Abdallah, a 74-year-old veteran of the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Factions (LARF), was sentenced to life in prison in 1987 for complicity in the assassinations of American and Israeli diplomats in Paris in 1982. Though he consistently denied direct involvement in the attacks, he took political responsibility, calling them acts of resistance against U.S. and Israeli aggression. The release order, granted conditionally with deportation, marks the end of his twelfth bid for freedom and follows years of international advocacy and grassroots mobilization.
A Prisoner of Politics, Not Just Law
Born in 1951 in the northern Lebanese village of Qoubaiyat to a Maronite Christian family, Abdallah’s political awakening came during his university studies in France, where he became involved in Marxist and anti-imperialist circles. He returned to Lebanon in the early stages of the civil war and aligned himself with Palestinian resistance groups, eventually joining the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command (PFLP-GC). His involvement in the armed struggle for Palestinian liberation later led to his association with the LARF, a group that became known for targeting Western diplomatic and military figures.
Abdallah was arrested in Lyon in 1984 for possessing forged documents, but the charges quickly escalated. French authorities, under pressure from the United States and amid a wave of Middle Eastern-related terror attacks, accused him of being involved in the killings of U.S. military attaché Charles R. Ray and Israeli diplomat Yacov Barsimantov. Despite weak physical evidence, Abdallah’s political affiliations and his refusal to denounce militant resistance sealed his fate in a highly politicized trial.
Throughout his incarceration, Abdallah was widely recognized by human rights organizations and legal experts as a political prisoner. His case raised serious questions about judicial independence in France, particularly after declassified documents revealed U.S. pressure played a key role in thwarting several court-ordered release decisions.
A Landmark Legal Decision, Decades in the Making
Though eligible for parole since 1999, Abdallah’s release was repeatedly blocked—either by appeals pushed by prosecutors at the French government’s urging or by the refusal of authorities to sign off on deportation. His most recent attempt, the twelfth, was approved in November 2024 when judges ruled his continued imprisonment to be “disproportionate” and a threat to public order, citing frequent demonstrations in support of him as evidence. The court acknowledged his age, his lack of involvement in any violent activity since 1984, and the shifting political context that made his continued detention indefensible.
However, that decision was immediately suspended when France’s National Anti-Terrorism Prosecution appealed, arguing that Abdallah had not shown “repentance” or made “sufficient effort” to compensate the victims’ families. French law does not require such repentance for parole, a point forcefully argued by Abdallah’s lawyer, Jean-Louis Chalanset, who accused the state of using extra-legal standards to justify indefinite detention. “I told the judges, either you release him, or you sentence him to death,” he said after the appeal hearing.
The court ultimately accepted that €16,000 set aside in Abdallah’s prison account, partially raised through donations, could serve as symbolic restitution, thereby satisfying the final condition for his release.
An Unrepentant Revolutionary
Over the years, Georges Abdallah has remained ideologically steadfast, refusing to renounce his support for armed resistance or to express regret for his political convictions. From his prison cell in Lannemezan, southern France, he authored dozens of statements supporting Palestinian prisoners, denouncing imperialism, and calling attention to injustices across the Arab world. In 2024, he marked Palestinian Prisoners’ Day with a statement reaffirming that their struggle was central to liberation movements and condemning ongoing Israeli occupation practices.
His refusal to compromise earned him reverence among Arab leftist movements and international solidarity networks, who long argued that he was being held as a symbol—a cautionary tale to those who defy Western hegemony through armed resistance. His supporters hailed him as a political martyr, unbroken by time, prison, or diplomatic manipulation.
Lebanon and the Global Response
News of Abdallah’s impending release was met with celebration in Lebanon. Preparations for his return are already underway in Qoubaiyat, where he is expected to live out his final years. His homecoming will mark a significant symbolic victory for many Lebanese and Palestinians, as well as for Arab nationalist and leftist groups who have kept his name alive through decades of campaigning.
The Lebanese state itself has also played an intermittent but crucial role in pressing for his release. In 2012, then-Prime Minister Najib Mikati publicly demanded Abdallah’s freedom. In 2013, a court again authorized his release, contingent on deportation, but the French Interior Ministry failed to follow through. In 2018, President Michel Aoun’s administration dispatched top intelligence officials to negotiate with France, underscoring the issue’s high-level significance.
Meanwhile, demonstrations continued annually outside the French Embassy in Beirut and Lannemezan Prison, often drawing crowds chanting, “Freedom for Georges Abdallah!” and branding his detention as an emblem of France’s colonial legacy in the Middle East.
A Case That Transcends Borders
Georges Abdallah’s story is more than one of an imprisoned man. It is a chronicle of a Cold War-era revolutionary whose incarceration became a symbol of the shifting nature of justice in a global order dominated by imperial politics. While Western governments labeled him a terrorist, his supporters framed him as a freedom fighter standing at the intersection of Palestinian resistance, anti-colonial struggle, and revolutionary Marxism.
His 41-year incarceration has outlasted the Cold War, several French presidents, and numerous geopolitical transformations, yet he emerges as a figure whose relevance remains sharply intact—perhaps even more so in today’s era of revived global struggles for decolonization, Palestinian justice, and state accountability.
With his release on July 25, Georges Ibrahim Abdallah will not only reclaim his physical freedom but also re-enter a world that, in many ways, is still wrestling with the very ideologies and inequalities he fought against. His freedom closes a dark chapter in European political imprisonment—but also opens another on the memory and meaning of resistance.