Georges Abdallah: France’s Longest-Serving Political Prisoner Faces New Ruling on Release

Watan-The French judiciary is set to issue its decision on Thursday regarding a new request for the release of Georges Abdallah, described by his supporters as the “oldest political prisoner” in France.

Abdallah, a Lebanese national, has been imprisoned for four decades on charges of killing two diplomats, with only a small group of pro-Palestinian activists still calling for his release.

On October 24, 1984, Abdallah, then a 33-year-old Lebanese teacher, sought refuge at a police station in Lyon. Feeling pursued, he believed that the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad, was trying to assassinate him.

Georges Abdallah: The Lebanese Revolutionary Who Defied France and the West

However, in reality, France’s Directorate of Territorial Surveillance (DST) had been tracking him after one of his relatives was arrested on a train at the Italian-Yugoslav border with seven kilograms of explosives. Georges Abdallah was subsequently imprisoned.

French intelligence services were already familiar with him. He was a member of the Lebanese Revolutionary Armed Factions, a small group of young Lebanese Marxists, mostly from the Christian town of Al-Qoubaiyat in northern Lebanon. They had taken up arms following Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982. The group targeted Israeli and American interests abroad.

Before Abdallah’s arrest, the faction carried out five operations in France, including the 1982 assassinations of American diplomat Charles Robert Ray and Israeli diplomat Yaakov Barsimentov, who was considered Mossad’s chief in France. Barsimentov was shot in front of his wife and children by a woman.

A Failed Exchange Deal

Months after Abdallah’s arrest, in March 1985, the director of the French Cultural Center in Tripoli, northern Lebanon, Gilles Peyrolles, was kidnapped. The Lebanese Revolutionary Armed Factions gave France a 48-hour ultimatum to release Abdallah.

In response, Paris, which at the time had little evidence against him beyond two forged passports in his possession, agreed to exchange him for Peyrolles, who was released on April 2.

However, Abdallah did not regain his freedom. Days later, the press revealed that authorities had new evidence linking him to the diplomats’ assassinations—his fingerprints were found in a Parisian hideout filled with explosives and weapons, including the pistol used in the killings.

The deal collapsed, and Abdallah was no longer eligible for release. He was now considered the leader of the Lebanese Revolutionary Armed Factions in France and was formally accused of complicity in the assassinations, especially under U.S. pressure, as Washington became a civil party in the case.

Yves Bonnet, the former head of the DST, later admitted, “I have a moral issue with this case. France broke its promise.”

Tension in Paris

Less than a year later, between December 1985 and September 1986, Paris was hit by an unprecedented wave of deadly attacks—the worst since the Algerian War. A total of 15 bombs exploded, killing 13 people and injuring over 250 others. The deadliest attack (7 killed) occurred at a Tati department store on Rue de Rennes.

Each time, a mysterious group calling itself the “Committee for Solidarity with Arab and Near Eastern Political Prisoners” claimed responsibility, demanding the release of three prisoners in France, including Georges Abdallah.

The other two prisoners were Anis Naccache, a Lebanese militant serving a life sentence for attempting to assassinate Iran’s last prime minister under the Shah, Shapour Bakhtiar, in 1980 (resulting in two deaths), and Varoujan Garabedian, an Armenian Syrian involved in the 1983 bombing of Turkish Airlines’ office at Orly Airport (8 killed).

As fear gripped France, security forces mobilized intensely.

The Search for the Abdallah Brothers

Investigators gradually focused on Georges Abdallah and his younger brothers, Maurice (23) and Robert (20), who were identified by a witness as the perpetrators of the bombings. Their pictures were displayed publicly, with a reward of “one million francs” for information leading to their capture. The French press at the time described it as an “unprecedented situation in France.”

In an attempt to prove their innocence, Georges Abdallah’s brothers held a press conference in Lebanon, asserting they had not left the country for over two years. They presented university records showing they had taken exams during the period of the alleged attacks.

Then came the Rue de Rennes bombing, after which a witness identified another Abdallah brother—Emile (26). However, a journalist from Agence France-Presse saw Emile in Lebanon just 20 hours later at his family home in the northern mountains, returning from work with a bag in hand.

Village elders, including the local priest, confirmed that none of the brothers had left the area in months. However, French investigators remained convinced they could have taken a quick trip to France, possibly via a private plane.

“Responsible Justice”

On February 23, 1987, Georges Abdallah’s trial for the diplomats’ assassinations began. In a courtroom fortified against potential attacks, the 35-year-old entered the defendant’s dock wearing a khaki military-style jacket.

A contemporaneous AFP report described him as “tall, dark-skinned, broad-shouldered, with a hooked nose, hollow cheeks covered by a thick beard, and dense, joined eyebrows.” Abdallah declared before the court, “I am an Arab fighter, not a criminal,” before reading a statement condemning “American imperialism and Zionism.” He then left the courtroom and never returned.

In 1986, he had already been sentenced in Lyon to four years in prison for passport forgery. But in this new trial, he faced a life sentence.

His indictment shocked many. The prosecutor urged the court to deliver “responsible justice” by considering the fate of French hostages still held in Lebanon. With a “heavy heart,” he pleaded that Abdallah not be sentenced to more than ten years.

Nonetheless, Abdallah was sentenced to life in prison. Public reactions in France were mixed—some felt proud of a “justice system worthy of its name,” while others expressed fear, saying they “would no longer go shopping on Saturdays.”

Hillary and Laurent

Two months after the trial, the theory that the Abdallah brothers had orchestrated the bombings collapsed when the real perpetrators were arrested—an Iran-backed group. Their leader, Fouad Ali Saleh, a Tunisian linked to Hezbollah, was sentenced to life in 1992 and remains imprisoned in France.

From then on, media coverage of Georges Abdallah faded, and he was largely forgotten.

In his 2022 memoir, former counterterrorism judge Alain Marsaud acknowledged, “It is now clear that Abdallah was partially convicted for crimes he did not commit.”

Although he became eligible for release in 1999, ten parole requests have been denied.

In January 2013, a glimmer of hope emerged for his supporters when a French court approved his release—on the condition that the government sign his deportation order.

His lawyer, Jacques Vergès, expressed “satisfaction” and urged French authorities to stop acting like “a prostitute to an American pimp.”

The next day, as revealed by WikiLeaks, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called her French counterpart Laurent Fabius, expressing hope that the government would “find another legal basis to challenge the decision.”

The deportation order was never signed, and Abdallah remained in prison—unlike most other “political prisoners” from groups like Action Directe, Corsican and Basque separatists, or even Anis Naccache (pardoned by President François Mitterrand as a gesture to Iran) and Varoujan Garabedian (deported from France in 2001).

Now 73 years old, Georges Abdallah lives in a cell in Lannemezan Prison (southwest France), surrounded by a red Che Guevara flag, newspapers, and letters accumulated over 40 years of imprisonment. He has consistently refused to compensate the civil parties or renounce his beliefs.

He seems to have been forgotten by everyone—except the committee advocating for his release… and the United States, which sent a letter to French courts in December strongly opposing his release ahead of their latest deliberation.