Hezbollah, PFLP congratulate resistance fighter on French ruling ordering his release

Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine have congratulated the pro-Palestinian Lebanese activist Georges Ibrahim Abdallah on the French court’s decision to release him after over 40 years of imprisonment, hoping that the ruling will be implemented this time without US and Israeli pressure.

In a statement on Thursday, Hezbollah congratulated Abdallah on “this prestigious honor, which he has earned through his steadfastness, resilience, and commitment to his principles in defending the truth and supporting the oppressed”.

It praised him as “a symbol for every prisoner, struggler, resistance fighter, and honorable person who has raised the banner of pride and dignity in the face of tyrants, and in defense of humanity, its rights, land, and principles.”

The movement noted that the 41 years Abdallah spent in French prisons proved the “falsehood of integrity and neutrality” of the French authorities.

Hezbollah said the continued detention of the resistance fighter despite the expiration of his legal sentence “will remain a stain of shame on the record of the French judicial and political system”, adding that it proves that the standards of democracy and the preservation of freedoms in France are conditional, and blindly biased towards the desires and interests of Washington and Tel Aviv.

The movement hoped that the ruling “will take its natural course towards immediate implementation”, and that it will not be thwarted by “narrow” French political calculations, or new Israeli and American pressure.

French court orders pro-Palestinian Lebanese activist freed after 40 years

A French court has ordered the release of pro-Palestinian Lebanese activist Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, who had been imprisoned for 40 years in France.

Also on Thursday, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine congratulated Abdallah on his release, hailing the ruling as “a victory” for the will of resilience and the Palestinian cause.

The PFLP also described the continued detention of Abdallah as a “stain on the forehead of French and American imperialism” and “a blatant complicity” with the Israeli regime.

Abdallah's “purely political” detention “sends a clear message to the world about the necessity of confronting colonial and global arrogance powers, and exposing the Zionist and imperialist crimes”.

The organization also warned against any imperialist and Israeli attempts to thwart the court’s decision, as happened before, calling for intensifying the struggle aimed to secure the release of all political detainees in Israeli and Western prisons.

The Paris Appeals Court ruled on Thursday that the 74-year-old Abdallah could be freed from a prison in southern France on July 25, provided that he leaves French territory and never returns.

The former head of the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Factions (LARF), who was first detained in 1984, was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1987 for his alleged involvement in the 1982 murders of a US military attaché and an Israeli diplomat in Paris, as well as the attempted murder of a US Consul General in Strasbourg in 1984.

While he was eligible for release since 1999, Abdallah’s release has been consistently obstructed by immense Israeli and US pressure which overturned previous court approvals.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.ir