BEIRUTA After more than 40 years in captivity, a Lebanese pro-Palestinian communist militant landed in Lebanon on Friday.
The 74-year-old Georges Ibrahim Abdallah was serving a life sentence for his involvement in the 1982 murders of two ambassadors in Paris—one American and one Israeli.
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Last Wednesday, the Paris Court of Appeal decided that Abdallah, who has been detained in France since his 1984 arrest, might be freed provided he leaves the nation and never returns.
In 1987, Abdallah received a life sentence for his involvement in the murders of Israeli ambassador Yacov Barsimantov and U.S. Army Lt. Col. Charles Ray, who was serving as an assistant military attaché in Paris.
Although he was eligible for parole in 1999, he has since had several bids denied.
A picture of staff members gathered around a memorial plaque at the Ray mission with their heads down in remembrance was shared on X by the U.S. Embassy in Paris.
According to the post, the US is against Georges Ibrahim Abdallah’s release after he was found guilty of terrorism. In addition to jeopardizing the security of American ambassadors overseas, his release violates the memory of the victims and their families.
Abdallah was viewed by many as a political prisoner. A group of admirers, including several members of Parliament, gathered outside the Beirut airport to await him, despite the fact that there was no formal gathering to commemorate his return.
With a banner that read, “George Abdallah is free, a Lebanese, Palestinian, and international freedom fighter on the road to liberating Palestine,” other people pounded drums and held up flags from the Palestinian and Lebanese Communist Parties. Others held flags of the airport while they stood along the highway.
When the crowd learned that the jet carrying Abdallah had arrived, they cheered.
Before continuing on to his homeland of Qobayat, a Christian community in the northern Lebanon mountains, Abdallah, wearing a red shirt and a Palestinian scarf, paused to say hello to his followers.
Speaking to reporters when he first arrived, Abdallah urged Arabs to march to the streets, claiming that millions of Arabs are merely observing and that Gaza’s youngsters are all walking skeletons. He demanded that Israel be confronted, claiming that it is living out its final days.
Israel made no formal announcement regarding Abdallah’s release.
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John Leicester, a writer for the Associated Press in Paris, contributed.
