The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this Blog! (Al-Akhbar) River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian "A case like this cannot be appealed based on the courts and France's legal sources," the prisoner's brother, Joseph Abdallah, told Al-Akhbar.ĭozens of activists have gathered outside the French embassy to protest Thursday's ruling, continuing months of regular demonstrations and sit-ins demanding Abdallah's release. It is unclear whether Thursday's ruling can be contested, however. The document detailing the court's deliberations and ruling made no reference to the crime in question as justification for his continued imprisonment.īut Lebanese activists say there is still hope, and are holding out for an April 11 hearing at the Sentence Enforcement Tribunal (TAP), where they hope to challenge the appeal.
His deportation from the country was ruled a necessary condition for his release. The court was not able to present concrete evidence against him, and he was imprisoned for passport fraud.įrance'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. "We have serious concerns that he could return to the battlefield."įrance’s interior minister Manuel Valls refused to sign Abdallah’s extradition order on the morning of his anticipated release in January, prompting protests and sit-ins at French centers across Lebanon.Ībdallah was sentenced to twenty years to life over his alleged involvement in the murder of two diplomats, an assistant to an American military and an Israeli in 1982. "We don't think he should be released and we are continuing our consultations with the French government about it," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters in January. He was granted parole on 21 November 2012, but the prosecution appealed the decision, and France has come under mounting pressure from the US and Israel to block his release. France's highest appeals court has struck down a decision to release Georges Abdallah, 62, jailed in French prisons for 29 years, calling the Lebanese prisoner's request for parole "irreceivable" on legal grounds.
0 kommentar(er)
