Georges Abdallah's Supporters Dismantle Tent Outside French Mission
The supporters of leftist militant Georges Abdallah, jailed for nearly three decades in France, ended on Wednesday their sit-in outside the French embassy in Beirut to pave way for a ministerial committee to carry out its tasks.
The International Campaign to Free George Abdallah dismantled the tent it had erected outside the mission on January 14.
The move, which was announced by Joseph Abdallah, came a day after the cabinet expanded the authorities of a ministerial committee tasked with following up the issue of Lebanese pilgrims kidnapped in Syria to include the case of the militant.
The suspension of the sit-in was “in appreciation of the government’s positive step to task a ministerial committee with coordinating with the French authorities to resolve the case of Abdallah,” he said.
However, he called for a sit-in outside the embassy on February 28, the date of the appeal session.
The campaign had organized several protests outside the embassy and several French cultural centers throughout Lebanon to press for his release.
The militant was jailed for life in 1987 after being convicted in the 1982 murders of military attache Charles Robert Ray and Israeli diplomat Yacov Barsimantov.
However, a French court last year granted parole for the former head of the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Faction (LARF), provided he was deported back to his home country. The court then postponed a final decision, drawing ire from Lebanon.
Abdallah has been eligible for parole since 1999, but seven previous applications were all rejected.
On Monday, U.S. Representative Grace Meng urged France not to release him, saying she would draw up a bipartisan letter with other members of Congress calling on France to scrap the possible release.
Abdallah's campaign has accused Paris of being a proxy for the U.S. But French Ambassador Patrice Paoli has denied any U.S. role in the delay to release him.
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