Campaign: Omitting George Abdallah’s case off Charbel’s agenda in France is a national insult

The international campaign for the release of Lebanese national George Abdallah stressed that omitting Abdallah’s case off the agenda of caretaker Interior Minister Marwan Charbel during his official visit to France is considered “a national insult and revealed that the Lebanese officials suffer from an inferiority complex.”

The campaign noted that the only explanation is that Charbel seeks the protection of the French Embassy in Beirut, pointing out that the caretaker minister had proposed that a delegation from the campaign secretly meets with the French ambassador.  

The French judiciary decided Thursday the 10th of January 2013 to release Lebanese national George Ibrahim Abdallah "provided that he be deported", AFP reported, however the decision was deferred for no explained reason.

Abdallah was jailed 28 years ago for attacks on US and Israeli diplomats in France, even though French law limits the maximum sentence of any prisoner to 18.

He was accused of engaging in commando operations carried out by the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Factions and the 1982 murders of US military attache Charles Robert Ray and Israeli diplomat Yacov Barsimantov; the court was not able to present concrete evidence against him in this regard so far.