Georges Abdallah, during a visit to the mausoleum of Hassan Nasrallah in the southern suburbs of Beirut, on Sept. 22, 2025. (Credit: Mohammad Yassin/L'Orient-Le Jour)
Former Lebanese prisoner and activist George Abdallah paid tribute on Monday to the former secretary-general of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, during a visit to the mausoleum erected in the southern suburbs of Beirut in honor of the party leader assassinated by Israel on Sept. 27, 2024. George Abdallah described Hassan Nasrallah as a "martyr of the nation," saying he "represents the sovereignty" of Lebanon.
Abdallah was accompanied by the vice president of Hezbollah's political council, Mahmoud Comati, and was received by party officials and families of "martyrs," according to Al-Mayadeen. "This place represents the dignity of Lebanon and 'the Resistance' as well as the sovereignty of the country," he told the channel upon arrival. "We are in the presence of the martyr of the nation. He is more present than ever in our hearts. The sayyed of martyrs, who offered his blood in sacrifice for the nation, will remain forever in our hearts and in history," he added, according to a Telegram account close to the party.
Abdallah, one of France's longest-held prisoners, returned to Lebanon on July 25 after more than 40 years behind bars. The former leader of the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Factions (LARF), a Marxist-Leninist Lebanese urban guerilla group active in the 1980s and long since dissolved, was sentenced in 1987 to life imprisonment for complicity in the assassinations of American and Israeli diplomats in Paris in 1982. Eligible for release for over 25 years, he had filed about ten release requests without success. He was finally released this summer. Upon his return to Lebanon, Abdalla immediately called to "continue the fight against the enemy" and to support 'the Resistance', referring to Hezbollah and its allies.
The former secretary general of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed on Sept. 27, 2024, during a massive Israeli strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut. He was buried last February after a popular tribute in a mausoleum erected near the road to the Beirut Airport, which has since become a pilgrimage site for his supporters. Commemorations are planned to mark the first anniversary of Nasrallah's death, including 18 days of ceremonies and the illumination of the Pigeon Rocks with the figure of the late leader.
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