Automatically translated from Basque, translation may contain errors. More information here. Elhuyarren itzultzaile automatikoaren logoa

Abdallah: the Lebanese who Israeli American friends would want to die in jail

  • On 24 October, it will mark forty years of the arrest and imprisonment of the Lebanese Georges Ibrahim Abdallah by the French State, thus becoming the oldest political prisoner in Europe. Militant for the freedom of Palestine, he was the creator of the Revolutionary Armed Fraction of Lebanon, and he is accused of killing an Israeli diplomat and an American. He has never assumed these attacks, but he has never silenced his political ideas: he is an enthusiastic anti-imperialist. Although he may be on probation since 1999, he has been systematically denied the possibility. After examining the application for the eleventh time, the judgment will be heard on 15 November. However, the 73-year-old fighter continues to struggle between four walls.
1984an atxilotu eta preso sartu zuten Palestinaren aldeko ekintzailea.1999az geroztik egon daiteke aske, baina sistematikoki errefusatzen diote baldintzapeko askatasuna. AEBetako Gobernuaren presioa argia da, preso nahi du libanoarra eta askatze prozedura
1984an atxilotu eta preso sartu zuten Palestinaren aldeko ekintzailea.1999az geroztik egon daiteke aske, baina sistematikoki errefusatzen diote baldintzapeko askatasuna. AEBetako Gobernuaren presioa argia da, preso nahi du libanoarra eta askatze prozedurak blokeatzen dabiltza. Argazkia:Free Georges Abdallah
Zarata mediatikoz beteriko garai nahasiotan, merkatu logiketatik urrun eta irakurleengandik gertu dagoen kazetaritza beharrezkoa dela uste baduzu, ARGIA bultzatzera animatu nahi zaitugu. Geroz eta gehiago gara, jarrai dezagun txikitik eragiten.

Even though the world has completely changed for forty years, there are things that remain. Let us say the policies of Israel.El
6 June 1982, Israeli Prime Minister Menahem Begine made the decision to invade Lebanon to stifle Palestinian resistance, and forty years later, the Israeli Government has re-invaded Lebanon and killed at least 2,000 Lebanese since 23 September. On 24 October 1984, Lebanese Marxist Georges Ibrahim Abdallah was imprisoned by the French Police and, despite the fact that more than four decades have passed, he remains in equal prison. The U.S., a civilian party in the 1987 case, advocated a life sentence for Abdallah; and in the new trial on parole on 7 October 2024 they remain the same, against being a civil party and the liberation of the Lebanese. Georges Ibrahim Abdallah is the personification of the occupation and oppression of Palestine, and shows us the blind support of the United States and the Western States for Israel. Abdallah's case is political, and instead of focusing judgment on justice, it's on the political side. We have "State reason" in the maneuver, and that hasn't changed in the last 40 years either.

Marxist and anti-imperialist

"Although the honor of participating in the anti-imperialist acts that accuse me was not granted to me by the people, I have the honour of having been tried by your courts and defending the criminal legitimacy of the executioners," he told the judge in the second case of Assisi in February 1987. This position has been maintained from the outset: The military assistant of the embassy of EE.UU., Charles Ray, and Israel’s second secretary, Yaacov Barsimantov, is accused of killing Massachusetts, but he has never claimed the attacks, although he politically defends those anti-imperialist actions. The murder of the American took place on 18 January 1982 in Paris, and that of the Israelis on 31 March of the same year in Paris.

Born in Kobayat (Lebanon) in 1951, Abdallah joined Marxist ideas from a young age and joined the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PAHF) in defence of Palestinian freedom. In 1978, Israel entered into a resistance parallel to the invasion of South Lebanon. A year later, at 28, he created the Revolutionary Armed Fraction of Lebanon FARL to combat all imperialist occupation of Lebanon – Israel, the United States and France – and for the liberation of Palestine. Basically, the two 1982 attacks attributed to Abdallah were the first to assume the LFARs. That year, Lebanon once again invaded the Zionist State, always with the support of the Americans. The invasion caused 20,000 deaths.

“We know that the French Government cannot legally revoke the judgment [in favour of freedom], but we hope that the way will be found to challenge the legality of the
judgment” EE.UU.

Abdallah is in France in those years. Mossad went to the police station to warn of the pressures and threats suffered by the Israeli secret services and was then arrested for denying the false Algerian passport. "We knew that he was an important member of the FARL, because there was a multitude of European information services hunting and, furthermore, the French Red Brigade or Action Directe maintained contacts with radical movements," said Yves Bonnet, then head of the French secret services. At first, imprisonment should not be allowed to last, since in the 1986 trial he was sentenced to four years ' imprisonment for denying weapons and using false papers. Until 1985, the FARL had already signed an exchange agreement with U.S. diplomat Gilles Sidney Peyroles, kidnapped in northern Lebanon.

The question of 1987: the supremacy of reason for state

However, between the arrest and the new case to be opened on 23 February 1987, the indictment against Abdallah changed radically. The President of the United States himself, Ronald Reagan, was in favour of the Lebanese being held in prison. The mass media spread terror, turning France into a "dangerous terrorist terrorizing" in a short time. The judge sentenced him to life imprisonment for linking the finding of the weapon at his home with the murder of two staff diplomats. The United States was a civilian part, and that was where the pressure from Washington began, which has never stopped at all times. The Communist Media L’Humanité summed up the trial: "Washington has won, among applause from Tel-Aviv (...), the trial against Abdallah has been led from the outset by a state outside the head." Jacques Vergès, the prisoner's lawyer, has repeatedly denounced the "intolerable veto of the United States" which is systematically found on the subject of his client. Imagine that he could be on the street since 1999, but he has been denied parole ten times. When explaining this stubborn rage towards Abdallah, Le Monde Diplomatique recalls the atmosphere in France in the mid-1980s "Did you terroriste a jour, terroriste toujours?" (Once 'terrorist, lifelong terrorist?) report. There were several attacks in the months leading up to the case, and without evidence, the political authorities and the media linked them to the FARL, and more specifically to the two brothers of Georges Ibrahim. However, the anti-imperialist organization did not carry out any attacks on civilians and always had military or diplomatic targets. It would later be revealed that these were attacks led by Hezbollah to denounce France’s military aid to Iraq in the war in Iraq and Iran.

Abdallah is an active citizen movement in the French State, in Lebanon and elsewhere in the international geography to call for its liberation. They have also mobilized in Ipar Euskal Herria, and they organise a bus to attend the demonstration to be held on 26 October in Lannemenburg, where Abdallah is in prison.

In the 2012-2013 trial, pressure from the Americans was evident. Finally, after 28 years in prison, he was granted conditional release – after having rejected it seven times –. The court in charge of executing the sentences responded positively to the petition, but soon the United States pressure was felt: "We regret the sentence on the guilty terrorist Georges Ibrahim Abdallah. (...) We hope that the French authorities will call and that the ruling will be annulled", in the words of the French American embassy, Charles Rivkin. Said and done: the Public Prosecutor's Office filed an appeal. The second sentence ratified the release, but under the condition of returning to Lebanon – the Foreign Minister, Adnane Mansour – who "took the sentence with optimism" and started the processes of access authorization. The Lebanese were starting to prepare a reception party after 28 years, because in the end they were going to be given back Dear Abdallah. However, the United States made a second warning: "We know that the French Government cannot legally revoke the judgment, but we hope that the French authorities will find the way to challenge the legality of the judgment," they are words of American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Three days later they received the present: Interior Minister Manuel Valls did not sign the expulsion order against him. Final point. Abdallah and the Abdallah received a slap. Over the years, this game is still there, we know, because in 2022 Gérard Darmanin also refused to sign the expulsion order.

On 15 November, the judgment on Otegi’s eleventh petition for freedom will be known. The policy has been brought up again in the judgment of 7 October. The two procurators have joined Abdallah Hezbollah and Hamas and have faced their liberation. Apparently, the release of the 73-year-old prisoner would be "risky", as he could take the weapons again. The same slogan is always that of Israel with invaded Lebanon and crushed Gaza.

Jean-Louis Chalanset, Abdallahren abokatua
"Hipokrisia handi batean gara. Errealitatea da ez dutela askatu nahi"

Hasteko, nola doa Georges Ibrahim Abdallah?

Fisikoki ongi doa. Hori bakarrik erran dezaket, hortaz haratago ez naiz bere izenean mintzatuko.

40 urtez kartzelan, Frantziako preso politiko zaharrena da.

Frantziakoa eta Europakoa ere.

1999az geroztik egon zitekeen aske, baldintzapean. Nola esplikatzen duzu tematze hori?

Frantziako Estatuaren presioa dugu hor, ez du aske ikusi nahi. Zergatik? Segur aski arabiarra delako. Noski, amerikarren presioa ere hor da, nabaria da. Israeldarrek ofizialki ez dute sekula erreakzionatu, bide ez-ofizialetik baliteke. Urriaren 7ko epaiketan berriz ere parte zibil gisa kokatu dira AEBak. Fermuki agertu dira Abdallah askatzearen kontra –eta hori prokuradorea baino anitzez gogorkiago–. Higuingarriak dira; diote, libratuz gero Hezbollahren garaipena izango litzatekeela. Alta, Libanoko ia alderdi politiko guziek dute bere askatasuna aldarrikatzen. Presidente ohi, ministro, zein enbaxadore, Abdallah hartzeko prest direla diote denek. Ez dago oztopo izpirik alde horretatik. Izan kristauak, xiitak edo sunitak, alderdi politiko ia guziak dira bere herriratzearen alde.

Hamaikagarren askatasun eskaera aurkeztu duzue. Hamar aldiz errefusatua izan zaio.

Duela hamaika urte onartua izan zitzaion, baina kanporatze ordenantza bideratzearen baldintzapean. Barne ministro Manuel Vallsek errefusatu zion. Geroztik beste eskaera batzuk izan dira, aldi oro onartu gabeak. Beti dituzte argudio berak: dolutu ez izana, ideia berekin jarraitzen duela eta beraz berriz hasteko arriskua badagoela... Zentzugabekeria batean dira.

Azkenean Justiziak ez, Politikak du epaia bideratzen.

Berez irizpide batzuen arabera onartzen ala errefusatzen da baldintzapeko askatasuna. Kontua da interpretatu egiten dituztela irizpide horiek. 40 urte pasa dira eta ez dago batere egoera politiko bera. Hipokrisia handi batean gara. Errealitatea da ez dutela askatu nahi.

Egoera aldatu da, baina Israelek berdin segitzen du.

Noski, egoera aldatu dela diodanean Libanoko talde marxistei buruz ari naiz. Palestinarrak ere duela 40 urte baino gutiago dira.

Ekialde Hurbila sutan dagoen honetan dator auzia.

Bai eta hori ez doa baitezpada gure alde. Berez, leporatzen zaiona justifikatua dela onartzen balitz, orduan, gure alde eragingo luke testuinguruak, hain zuzen, ikusten dugulako israeldarrek eta amerikarrek 40 urte pasa ondoren ere segitzen dutela herri palestinarra eta libanoarra hiltzen. Maleruski, ez dut uste hori izango denik epaileen begirada.

Defentsa egiteko orduan zertan jartzen duzue indarra?

Preso pasa dituen urte kopuru luzea oroitarazten diegu, eta militante politiko bat izanik, ez duela dolu ala barkamenik erakutsi beharrik. Biktima bezala dauden AEBen indemnizazioa errefusatzea leporatzen diote. AEBek eraikitako bonbek Libanoko eta Palestinako haurrak hiltzen dituzten kontestuan, izugarrizko karikatura batean gaude.

Baikor zara?

Egoera ez da hain ona, ezkorra izateko arrazoiak ditut. Ez da ezer berririk agertu urriaren 7ko auzian. Guztiak dira bere askatzearen aurka, prokuradoreak behin eta berriz ohartarazi du terrorista bat ezin dela askatu. Berez zuzenbide kontu bat beharko litzateke izan; kontua da zuzenbidea baliatzen dutela ikuspegi politikoa elikatzeko. Ageriko da.


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