We republish below an unofficial translation of the following article from the Brazilian New Democratic newspaper A Nova Democracia (AND), originally published on November 16, 2024. Minor changes have been made for accuracy.
Europe’s longest-serving political prisoner, Georges Abdallah, was provided an order for release on Friday after French prosecutors reached an agreement for the Lebanese revolutionary to be released on December 6, on the condition that he leave the country. The French anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office said it will appeal the decision.
From the civil war in Lebanon to international action
Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, 73, is a longtime militant of the international communist movement and a fighter for the Palestinian cause. In his youth, he was a member of the Syrian National Socialist Party and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – External Operations (PFLP-OE), a Marxist-Leninist organization, and engaged in the armed struggle against Zionism from Lebanon. In 1979, Abdallah founded, together with 30 other militants, the Lebanese Revolutionary Armed Factions, a group formed by Maronite Christians in solidarity with the Palestinian cause, which was very active in Lebanon during the 1982 civil war and abroad, with links to the Red Army Faction (RAF) of West Germany and the Red Brigades of Italy.
Between 1980 and 1987, the group, under Georges’s leadership, carried out more than 18 bomb attacks in Western Europe against Zionist and imperialist targets, mainly Yankee. They were also responsible for the annihilation of the military adjutant of the American Embassy in Paris, Lieutenant Colonel Charles R. Ray, and the Israeli diplomat Ya’akov Bar Simantov, among other high-profile targets.
A committed militant who withstood the harshness of prison
Abdallah was arrested in 1984 after his car was stopped by police on the way to Lyon. He was initially arrested for illegal possession of weapons and false passports, but was soon convicted by a French court for involvement in the deaths of Ray and Bar Simantov. The minimum term of his life sentence was served in 1999, and since then every two years Abdallah’s defense has been able to request his release.
Abdallah is internationally recognized for his ideological conviction, demonstrated mainly by his firm stance in prison. He has never renounced his goals nor regretted any of his actions, refusing to collaborate in any way with the French police. He has always stood in solidarity with other political prisoners, engaging in international campaigns for the release of Ahmad Saadat and others. He is currently the longest-serving political prisoner in Europe, having already served 40 years of his sentence. As a result, the fight for his release has become a symbol of the fight for the release of all political prisoners worldwide.
International movement for the freedom of Georges Abdallah
A strong international movement called the United Campaign for the Freedom of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah (CUPLGIA) has been responsible for keeping the flame of his release alive around the world. In a recent action, the group held demonstrations in 33 cities in France, including Reunion and Corsica, as well as Belgium and Spain simultaneously, according to information from the French revolutionary newspaper La Cause du Peuple.
In 2013, a court had already ruled in favor of the communist militant’s release, but the then French Minister of the Interior Manuel Valls, following orders from the American embassy, refused to allow him to leave the country, which was a condition for his freedom.
With the monumental rise in propaganda and solidarity with the Palestinian cause since the Al-Aqsa Flood offensive on October 7, 2023, the historic role of militants like Abdallah has been increasingly acknowledged among democratic and revolutionary circles in Europe. Therefore, CUPLGIA affirms that there is now a real possibility that Abdallah will finally be released and calls on all democrats, revolutionaries and sympathizers of the Palestinian cause to raise the international campaign for his release.
Photo: Georges Abdallah in his cell.
