After 40 Years Behind Bars in France, Lebanese Pro-Palestine Activist Georges Abdallah Is Free
Beirut (Quds News Network)- Pro-Palestine Lebanese activist Georges Abdallah arrived in Beirut on Friday following his release after four decades in detention in France.
The former guerrilla with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1987 for his alleged involvement in the murders of US military attache Charles Robert Ray and Israeli diplomat Yacov Barsimantov five years earlier.
On Thursday, the Paris Appeals Court ordered the 74-year-old to be freed from prison next week, on 25 July, on the condition that he leaves French territory and never returns.
Abdallah is one of the longest-serving prisoners in France, where most convicts serving life sentences are freed after fewer than 30 years.
He had appealed against his conviction 11 times since becoming eligible for release in 1999.
For his supporters, Abdallah’s release brings long-overdue justice. “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.
Depuis Beyrouth au Liban, une foule nombreuse se mobilise devant l'aéroport pour accueillir le communiste Georges Abdallah après +40 ans de prison en France. pic.twitter.com/Zy2Vx8tkWP
— Free Georges Abdallah (@FreeGIAbdallah) July 25, 2025
Abdallah, born to a Christian family in the village of Kobayat, northern Lebanon, has long maintained that he was not a “criminal” but “a fighter” who battled for the rights of Palestinians.
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.
Now, at 74, Abdallah returns to his hometown of Qoubaiyat in northern Lebanon – not just as a free man resuming civilian life, but as a deeply symbolic figure.
