The shameful case of Georges Abdallah

"Free Georges"—Protester at the French embassy in Beirut. Photo from assawra.info.

For the past two weeks, the usually bon chic bon genre neighborhood surrounding the French embassy in Beirut has gone through quite a makeover. Graffiti has covered every nook and cranny of the once pristine walls. A tent set up across the street from the embassy hosted keffieh-clad protesters day and night who demanded one thing: the liberation of Georges Abdallah.

For the past 28 years, Georges Abdallah has been rotting in prison in France for a crime he most likely did not commit.


In the late 1970s, Abdallah joined the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Factions, a pro-Palestinian group focused on liberating Lebanon from foreign influence after the Israeli invasion of 1978. In 1982, the LARF claim responsibility for the murders of American military attaché Charles Ray and Israeli diplomat Yacov Barsimentov in Paris.

In 1984, Georges Abdallah is arrested in France over possession of a false ID, then charged with complicity in the two murders. In 1987, he is condemned to life in prison. Mere days after the verdict, one of Georges' lawyers, Jean-Paul Mazurier, publishes "L'agent noir," a book in which he details how he was bribed by the French secret services to spy on his own client.

Georges' other lawyer, prominent anti-colonialist Jacques Vergès, calls for a retrial, but the verdict is upheld.

Years later, Yves Bonnet, who headed the DST (a French intelligence agency) during the investigation of Georges Abdallah, called the case France's "revenge" for past LARF attacks on French territory.

Since 1999, Georges Abdallah has been eligible for parole. He appealed to be released seven times, only to see his application rejected each time.

In December, the court ruled that his eighth appeal for parole would be granted, on the condition that he be extradited from French territory. But on January 14, French Interior Minister Manuel Valls refused to sign the extradition order, effectively blocking the due process of justice and keeping Abdallah behind bars. While hearings are being scheduled and rescheduled, the hope that Georges might one day come back to Lebanon grows dimmer every day.

Georges Abdallah's continued incarceration is France giving one big, fat middle finger to Lebanon and the notion of impartial justice. Few cases expose the dirty work of politics in France's judicial system as nakedly as Abdallah's.

Abdallah is a 61-year-old man who has spent almost half of his life in prison. Yet, the United States and Israel keep pressuring France to keep him locked up forever, arguing that Abdallah has not expressed remorse for his actions, nor disavowed his cause.

The evidence tying Abdallah to the murders is tenuous at best. It is his commitment to the Palestinian resistance that is being criminalized.

It's quite telling that a French woman would be released 53 years early from prison in Mexico and welcomed back to her native country like a heroine—despite the fact that she was released over procedural mistakes, not because she proved out to be innocent—while France refuses to release Abdallah simply for his supposed complicity in a crime.

Abdallah has become a symbol of post-colonial power dynamics. There is no doubt that, had he been British or American, he would have been out of jail years and years ago. And France would never tolerate such an arbitrary execution of justice if one of its own citizens was locked up in Lebanon.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati himself has been lobbying France for Abdallah's release, but the outlook is looking pretty dim. And how much weight can a couple of Lebanese politicians have in Paris, when the only things French people care about these days is our intervention in Mali and gay marriage?

Unless Georges Abdallah gets much more coverage in the French media, it's going to be hard to convince France that doing the right thing is worth angering bigshot allies. And as long as the rest of the world isn't watching, shouts of anger are staying outside of the embassy walls.