Petition

To: The President of the French Republic François Hollande

Subject: Immediate release of Georges Abdallah

We write to call for the release of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah the longest held political prisoner in Europe. He is being held in France since 1984, accused of complicity in the execution of the American military attache in Paris, Charles Robert Ray (18 January 1982) and the Israeli diplomat, Ya’acov Bar-Simantov (3 April 1982). Georges Abdallah was given a life sentence in a controversial hearing, which was considered a stain on the French legal system. In 1999, Abdallah completed the minimum portion of his life sentence, but several parole requests were denied. Despite the favorable juridical decisions on his release in 2003 and 2012 , he was not released by order of the U.S. government, civil party in the trial. On 21 November 2012, the Sentence Enforcement Chamber of Paris (TAP) had approved Abdallah’s request for parole on the condition that he be expelled from France. On 10 January 2013, the Court of Appeals in Paris upheld the TAP’s ruling, and rejected the appeal submitted by the French Public Prosecution, settling the controversy regarding its final and unequivocal decision to release Abdallah. On 14 January 2013 Abdallah was supposed to appear one last time before the French judge, to be read the terms of his conditional release, which requires him to be deported from France. But French Minister of Interior Manuel Val’s refused to sign Abdallah’s deportation order. The court postponed the release until 28 January 2013. On 17 January 2013 the French prosecution requested a new appeal against the release of Abdallah saying that the deportation process should be done and secured before the court decision to grant conditional release. On 4 April 2013 France’s court of cassation, its highest court of appeals, ruled against his release on grounds that Abdallah’s extradition would not allow for a one-year, electronically monitored parole period, compulsory for life-sentence convicts appealing for parole. His deportation from the country was ruled a necessary condition for his release. Freeing all political prisoners is a crucial test for the French government to show it is genuinely committed to human rights standards. France has kept Abdallah in custody for 30 years despite the fact that prisoners are legally allowed to ask for release on bail after spending 15 years in prison. We call for his immediate release and his return to Lebanon, the country that is waiting for him.