Prosecutor appeals George Abdallah’s release, departure unaffected

The Paris prosecutor’s office said Monday it has appealed George Abdallah’s release, but the move won’t stop the Lebanese activist from leaving prison Friday and returning to Lebanon.

The appeals court last Thursday ordered the release of Abdallah, 74, on the condition that one of France's longest-held inmates — after 40 years in prison — leave French territory and never return.

His release from Lannemezan prison will take place Friday. He is then scheduled to take a flight from Roissy to Beirut, a departure arranged with the Lebanese authorities, who have long called for this release and welcomed the news.

The former leader of the FARL (Lebanese Revolutionary Armed Fractions), a small Marxist Lebanese Christian group active in the 1980s and dissolved long ago, was sentenced in 1987 to life in prison for complicity in the assassinations of American and Israeli diplomats in Paris in 1982.

Abdallah has been eligible for release for more than 25 years but saw about ten previous requests denied. This time, both the trial and appellate courts supported his release, finding the length of his detention for an "elderly" prisoner "disproportionate" to the crimes committed.

The anti-terrorism prosecutor's office and then the general prosecutor's office, during the appeals hearing, opposed this release.

In its statement, the general prosecutor's office justified the appeal, arguing that the appeals court's decision "does not conform to the case law" of the Court of Cassation, "according to which a person sentenced to life imprisonment for acts of terrorism cannot benefit from conditional release without a probationary measure," such as an electronic tag in France for several months, or obligations to report to a judge.

"This appeal does not suspend the execution of the decision," the statement clarified.