REPORT: French Ambassador: No final decision was taken in George Ibrahim Abdallah’s case

French Ambassador to Lebanon Patrice Paoli said on Tuesday that the decision pertaining to the release of George Ibrahim Abdallah has not been taken yet, stressing that the French court and the French government remain independent in this regard.           

After meeting with the Foreign Affairs Minister Adnan Mansour, Paoli said that yesterday’s demonstration in front the French embassy was a way to express disappointment since George Abdallah’s relatives were awaiting his conditional release.                    

Abdallah had been in prison for over 28 years, 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; the court was not able to present concrete evidence against him in this regard so far.                                        

He was arrested in 1984 and sentenced to life in prison three years later for his alleged involvement in the 1982 murders of U.S. military attache Charles Robert Ray and Israeli diplomat Yacov Barsimantov.