Georges Ibrahim Abdallah (, born 2 April 1951) is a Lebanese militant, who founded the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Factions (LARF) and who has been the longest held prisoner in Europe. He is currently serving a life sentence at Lannemezan prison, France, for complicity in the 1982 murders of Charles R. Ray and Yacov Bar-Simantov.

Early life and militancy

Abdallah is a Maronite Christian. He was born in 1951, in the predominantly Maronite town of Al Qoubaiyat in northern Lebanon. He worked as a secondary school teacher and was also a member of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP). He was wounded in 1978 during Israel's invasion of Lebanon. That year, he joined the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and the following year, 1979, he formed the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Factions alongside some relatives. The organization was composed of Maronites who had been trained by the PFLP. The LARF conducted five attacks, including four in France in 1981 and 1982. The group was in contact with other far-left militant organizations in Europe such as the Action Directe of France, the Red Brigades of Italy and the Red Army Faction of Germany.

Arrest

In early April 1984, police discovered a cache of weapons in his Paris hideout, including a Czech-made 7.65-caliber pistol, 55 pounds of explosives, rockets, submachine guns, and other arms. On October 24, 1984, Abdallah was driving to Lyon from Switzerland to pick up a deposit for an apartment when he was pulled over by chance by French police. He was arrested on charges related to the possession of fraudulent Algerian and Maltese passports, involvement in a criminal conspiracy, and the illegal possession of weapons and explosives. Abdallah was sentenced to life in prison in 1987 for complicity in the 1982 murder of Lieutenant Colonel Charles R. Ray, an assistant US military attaché and murder of Israeli diplomat Yaakov Bar-Simantov outside his home in Paris on 3 April 1982, as well as involvement in the attempted assassination of former American consul in Strasbourg Robert O. Homme, on 26 March 1984. The murders were conducted in retaliation for American and Israeli involvement in fighting the Palestinian armed organizations in Lebanon followed in June 1982 by the 1982 Lebanon War as well as Israel's occupation of Lebanon, and the LARF claimed responsibility for the assassinations. Abdallah is imprisoned in France and has released communiqués from prison in solidarity with prisoners from other Communist groups, such as Ahmad Saadat, Action Directe and GRAPO. After his capture, he testified "I do what I do because of the injustice done to human rights where Palestine is concerned."

Appeals for release

In 1999, Abdallah completed the minimum portion of his life sentence, but several requests for parole were denied. In 2003, the court granted him parole but the US Department of State objected to the court decision. Dominique Perben, the Minister of Justice at the time, made an appeal against the release. Every two years Abdallah has the right to ask for a new release date, which has been refused more than five times. New laws were created (Loi Dati 2008) for the prevention of reoffending, which were applied retroactively on his case. On 10 January 2013, Abdallah was granted parole on appeal by the Chamber of Sentences Application of Paris on the condition of an order of deportation from France. Abdallah's lawyer said that his client hopes to return to Lebanon and take up a teaching job. Victoria Nuland, spokeswoman of the US State Department, declared to the press the US government's objection to his release on 11 January 2013. The United States ambassador to France, Charles Rivkin stated "I am disappointed by the decision today.... Life imprisonment was the appropriate sentence for Mr Abdallah's serious crimes, and there is legitimate concern that Mr. Abdallah would continue to represent a danger to the international community if he were allowed to go free." 14 January 2013 was the scheduled date for Abdallah to return to Lebanon after almost 30 years of imprisonment in France. However, Manuel Valls, the Minister of the Interior, refused to sign an administrative paper for deporting Abdallah. As a result of Valls's refusal, court proceedings took place on 15 January 2013. The prosecutor, under the Minister of Justice's authority, made a second appeal against his release (the first appeal was in November 2012). A complaint was sent in June 2013 against France to the investigators of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. Another complaint was sent to the French Supreme Court against Minister Valls for not signing the administrative paper necessary for Abdallah's release. During the 2023 Israel-Hamas war hostage crisis, a delegation from the Lebanese Communist Party met with the Hamas leadership in Lebanon and at the end of the meeting handed over an official letter to the Hamas leadership, in which the party asked the Hamas leadership to adopt the issue of the release of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah in any future exchange deal. On 15 November 2024, a French court ordered to release him on 6 December on the condition that he would leave France. Prosecutors said that they would appeal against the order.

Personal life

He is the uncle of Chloé Delaume.

Honors

In December 2013, the French city of Bagnolet (an eastern suburb of Paris) voted to make Abdallah an "honorary resident." The city council's motion described him as a "communist activist" and a "political prisoner" who "belongs to the resistance movement of Lebanon" and is a "determined defender of the Palestinian just cause."