ALBAWABA Lebanese pro-Palestinian activist George Ibrahim Abdallah was granted conditional parole by a French court after 40 years in jail. The National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office will appeal the verdict to prevent him from being released.
On Friday, the court ordered Abdallah to leave jail on December 6 if he leaves France and never returns. The prosecutor's office said, "The release is contingent on his immediate departure from France and a permanent ban on re-entry."
Abdallah, 73, is Europe's longest-serving political prisoner and former Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Factions commander. He was caught in 1984 for holding false papers and convicted to life in 1987 for assassinating Israeli envoy Yaakov Bar-Simantov and U.S. diplomat Charles Robert Ray in Paris in 1982. He was also convicted of trying to kill U.S. Consul General Robert Homme in Strasbourg in 1984.
Abdallah's 11th conditional release request. Since 1999, the French judicial, U.S., and Israeli governments opposed his pleas for release despite satisfying legal requirements.
Jean-Louis Chalanset, Abdallah's lawyer, told Al Jazeera that the legal system was wrong to extend his client's detention. "The French judiciary seems determined to ensure he dies in prison," Chalanset said, dismissing the prosecution's accusations that Abdallah was a security concern owing to Hezbollah and Hamas ties.
The lawyer denied that Abdallah's ties to French pro-Palestinian groups supported terrorism. "These exaggerated claims are designed to maintain the status quo and keep him in prison," Chalanset told Al Jazeera.
Supporters see Abdallah as a symbol of resistance to injustice, while detractors see him as a threat. The appeal procedure should heighten his destiny talks.
