After 40 years behind bars in France, Georges Abdallah will return home to Lebanon

France 24

5 days ago

Abdallah will be released from his prison cell in southern France on July 25 and transported by military aircraft to Paris. He will then board a flight to Beirut, where he will he transferred into Lebanese custody.
For his supporters, Abdallah's release brings long-overdue justice. For others, his name is simply reminiscent of a distant and complex chapter in history. But his return has symbolic weight in his country of origin.
'This moment isn't about sentimentality – it's about the long wait, 40 years of it. It's about resilience in the face of delays, appeals, discrimination. This is not a time for nostalgia, but rather a culmination of time and justice,' said his brother, Robert Abdallah.
Abdallah was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 1987 for the assassinations of US military attaché Charles Robert Ray and Israeli diplomat Yacov Barsimantov.
While he has always denied direct involvement, Abdallah never distanced himself from the resistance movement he co-founded, the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Factions, a Marxist group aligned with Palestinian and pan-Arab causes that also sought to evict foreign forces – notably Israel – from Lebanese soil.
Despite multiple court rulings over the years recommending his release, Abdallah remained in prison due to political pressure – particularly from the United States and Israel. He ultimately served four decades in France's Lannemezan prison, steadfastly refusing to express remorse.
A free man
Although he completed the minimum sentence in 1999 he remained behind bars, multiple requests for parole having been denied.
Preparations to welcome him have been under way ever since, according to Catherine Daher, a journalist and activist for Lebanon's National Campaign to Free Georges Abdallah.
'We can say that preparations to welcome comrade Georges have been ongoing since 1999, when his sentence officially ended,' Daher said.
'Since then, we've faced repeated release orders – in 2003, 2013 and 2024 – that were blocked for political reasons,' she said, making him 'the longest-held political prisoner in Europe'.
Now, at 74, Abdallah is preparing to return to his hometown of Qoubaiyat in northern Lebanon – not just as a free man resuming civilian life, but as a deeply symbolic figure.
Daher said plans are under way for a series of public events upon his return to Lebanon.
'His welcome will include state officials, political leaders, his family, and the national campaign that fought for his release – as well as student groups, media figures, trade unionists, human rights advocates, cultural voices, and activists from France and beyond who played a key role in keeping up the pressure,' she said.
One of the first political forces to welcome his release was the Lebanese Communist Party, which hailed Abdallah as a principled 'resistance fighter' who refused to compromise even after four decades behind bars.
Hezbollah described Abdallah as a 'hero of resistance' and 'a symbol for every prisoner, fighter and honourable person who raised the banner of dignity in the face of tyrants'. Hezbollah was a newly emergent group at the time of his arrest in 1984.
But other major parties have stayed quiet. The Lebanese Forces and Kataeb, two prominent Christian factions with roots in Lebanon's civil war era, have not issued any public comment.
'It's understandable that many Lebanese political factions – especially Christian parties like the Kataeb and Lebanese Forces – have not issued any public statement welcoming Georges Abdallah's return,' said political and social psychologist Ramzi Abou Ismail. 'Although he is a Christian by background, Abdallah never embodied the in-group identity typically promoted by these parties.'
'His alignment with Palestinian armed factions during the civil war, and his rejection of sectarian politics, positioned him as a challenge to the identity they claimed – that of protectors of the Christian community,' he added.
Charbel Jabbour, head of communications for the Lebanese Forces, said Abdallah's release symbolically helps close the chapter on Lebanon's civil conflict. 'The war era is over – completely over. Abdallah served his sentence and is being released,' he told FRANCE 24. 'The civil war chapter must be permanently closed. Anything else is unacceptable.'
Outside of ideological and political circles, Abdallah's return has generated limited buzz among Lebanon's younger population. For many, his name is unfamiliar – a symbol of a different era, eclipsed by today's crises: economic collapse, political gridlock and mass emigration.
Still, his face now adorns posters and social media feeds once again, and he is often depicted not as a militant but as a man who stood by his convictions – regardless of the consequences.
'He's a hero for some, yes. But to others he is not, and to many he is from a time they never lived through,' said one historian, who requested anonymity.