An air of freedom opens for Georges Ibrahim Abdallah

“Let us never give up, let us always keep the red thread of the struggle”launched Georges Ibrahim Abdallah in our columns on Friday. At the end of forty years of imprisonment in French jails, the oldest political prisoner in Europe and the oldest in the world linked to the Middle East conflict, will he finally join his family in his native country, Lebanon? The Sentence Enforcement Tribunal (TAP) accepted this Friday, November 15, the eleventh request for conditional release from Georges Ibrahim Abdallah. The National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office has, however, announced an appeal. “By decision dated today, the TAP admitted Georges Ibrahim Abdallah to the benefit of conditional release from December 6, subject to the condition of leaving the national territory and no longer appearing there” it is specified in the press release.

A form of slow death

His lawyer, Me Jean-Louis Chalanset, who greets a “legal and political victory” was all the more pleased that the court's decision is not conditional on the government issuing an expulsion order. As soon as the TAP's decision was announced, reactions of satisfaction and joy were not long in coming. Particularly those who have tirelessly mobilized and launched calls for his release in recent years.

At the initiative of several steps and calls for the release of Georges Abdallah, the communist deputy for Puy-de-Dôme, André Chassaigne, welcomes such a decision. “It demonstrates that justice can make decisions based on the law, decisions which prohibit validating a form of slow death for a prisoner who has been released for twenty-five years”notes the president of the Democratic and Republican Left (GDR) group in the National Assembly. France, he continues, “will emerge from it grown, thus marking its independence in relation to external pressures, then through such a gesture, it will honor itself in the current diplomatic landscape”.

Other enthusiastic reactions were not long in coming. France Insoumise (FI) MP for Loire, Andrée Taurinya, said she was extremely relieved to “this decision. It shows that we are still in the country of Human Rights which has abolished the death penalty. Because the risk of a slow death sentence remained unbearable”. Alongside André Chassaigne and his colleagues Sylvie Ferrer elected in the Hautes-Pyrénées and Karen Elodie in the Tarn, they were at the initiative of a column published in Humanity in favor of the release of Georges Abdallah.

A leaden screed

Committed for decades, José Navarro and Daniel Larregola, leaders of the Bigourdan Collective for his liberation, did not hide their joy and their emotions this Friday, when the decision was announced. “We would like to salute the mobilizations of grassroots activists across France. There were still 4,000 of us on October 26 in front of the Lannemezan prison to denounce the leaden pall that had fallen on Georges' case.recalled the two responsible. “We would also like to warmly thank the initiatives of parliamentarians, as well as those of intellectuals, like Annie Ernaux. She had just alerted L'Humanité about the intolerable situation imposed on Georges and called, like others, to act so that he quickly regains his freedom. and to emphasize again that “To speak loudly and clearly about Georges is also to bring to the forefront the defense of the Palestinian cause and the rights of its people”concluded José Navarro and Daniel Larregola.

Since his young years, the Lebanese communist activist has tirelessly committed himself to defending the rights of the Palestinian people. Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, participated in the founding of a communist and anti-imperialist organization, the Lebanese Revolutionary Armed Fractions (FARL). Arrested in France in 1984, he was first sentenced to four years in prison for carrying weapons and false papers, then to life in prison for complicity in murder. Many leaders of the Territorial Surveillance (DST) and members of the government knew at the time that the file was empty, that the activist had been convicted without proof. The French authorities, however, remained sensitive to incessant American and Israeli pressure for Georges Ibrahim Abdallah to remain behind bars.