Georges Abdallah: Pro-Palestinian convict freed after 40 years

Georges Abdallah will immediately be expelled to his native Lebanon after his release early on Friday.

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Described by his lawyer as "the man who has spent the longest time in prison for events linked to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," Abdallah left jail in the south of France in the early hours of Friday and was due to be put on a flight directly to Beirut.

Convicted in 1987 for complicity in the murders in France of two diplomats – one American, one Israeli – Abdallah has gradually been forgotten by the wider public.

But his release remained a cause célèbre for activists on the Marxist-Leninist left, with which he still identifies.

His stern-looking bearded face continued to peer from banners in left-wing demonstrations; and once a year protesters gathered to demand his freedom outside his prison in the Pyrenees. Three left-led French municipalities declared him an "honorary citizen".