French court orders release of Lebanese militant Georges Ibrahim Abdallah

Georges Ibrahim Abdallah arrives at the Pau appeal court, southwestern France, Thursday Feb. 18, 2010. (AP Photo/Bob Edme)

PARIS -- A French court on Thursday ordered the conditional release of a Lebanese pro-Palestinian communist militant after more than 40 years in detention in France.

Georges Ibrahim Abdallah was serving a life sentence for complicity in the murders of two diplomats, one American and one Israeli, in Paris in 1982.

The Paris Court of Appeal ruled Abdallah, who has been imprisoned in France since his arrest in 1984, can be released next Friday on the condition that he leave the country and never return, judicial authorities said.

His lawyer, Jean-Louis Chalanset, told reporters that Abdallah wants to return to Lebanon upon his release and remains “a communist militant who supports the Palestinian struggle and fights against the invasion of his country by Israel.”

He described Abdallah as the longest-held political prisoner in Europe.

“He has never renounced his convictions,” Chalanset said, adding that U.S. authorities had lobbied the Paris court to reject the 74-year-old’s release request. “So it’s also a political victory, even after nearly 41 years in detention, against the United States.”

Abdallah was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1987 for complicity in the assassinations of U.S. army Lt.-Col. Charles Ray, who was stationed in Paris as an assistant military attache, and Israeli diplomat Yacov Barsimantov.

New York City-born Ray was married with two children and was a decorated Vietnam veteran. He was killed by a single gunshot to the head outside the family home in western Paris on Jan. 18, 1982.

His widow, Sharon Ray, testified at Abdallah’s trial, telling French judges that “no one on Earth deserves to die like that, to be executed like that.”