Overview

• The Paris Court of Appeal held a closed hearing on June 19 to review Abdallah’s eleventh bid for release after more than four decades in prison.
• Abdallah has been eligible for parole since 1999 but judges postponed their latest ruling from February to June because he refuses to pay court-ordered damages to the families of two slain diplomats.
• He was sentenced in 1987 to life imprisonment for complicity in the assassinations of a U.S. and an Israeli diplomat orchestrated by the FARL group.
• French prosecutors and the anti-terrorism office oppose his freedom, arguing his past involvement with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine remains disqualifying.
• Supporters, largely young pro-Palestinian activists, have staged demonstrations in Paris, branding him Europe’s longest-serving political prisoner.