Overview
- Georges Abdallah was arrested in 1984 and convicted in 1987 for complicity in assassinations of U.S. and Israeli diplomats, serving over four decades at Lannemezan prison.
- On July 17 the Paris Court of Appeal ordered his release effective July 25 on condition he quit French soil and never return, describing his detention as disproportionate.
- A non-suspensive cassation appeal filed by the Paris prosecutor general on July 21 did not block his departure from France.
- He left prison shortly before 3:40 a.m. on July 25 in a six-vehicle convoy, was transferred to Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport and deported to Beirut on Air France flight 564.
- Abdallah arrived in Beirut to chants of “Liberté!”, reaffirmed his call for Palestinian resistance and is set to receive a popular and official welcome in his home village of Kobayat.