PARIS: A French court on Thursday ruled in favour of releasing Lebanese man Georges Ibrahim Abdallah from prison, after he served almost 40 years of a life sentence for attacks on US and Israeli diplomats in France.

The Paris Appeals court agreed to Abdallah’s release on July 25 on the condition he leaves France, a judicial source said. A second source familiar with the case said he would be deported to Lebanon.

Abdallah is the former head of the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Factions. He was jailed in 1987 for his role in the 1982 murders in Paris of US military attache Charles Ray and Israeli diplomat Yacov Barsi­mantov and for the attempted murder of US Consul General Robert Homme in Strasbourg in 1984.

The US Department of Justice and France’s general prosecutor have for years vigorously opposed his release, and eight previous release requests had been rejected.

Neither Abdallah’s lawyer nor the Lebanese and US embassies were immediately available for comment. In a hearing in February, the Paris court said Abdallah should make an effort to compensate his victims’ families, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Published in Dawn, July 18th, 2025