The United States descended on Saturday on the release of pro-Palestinian Lebanese militant Georges Ibrahim Abdallah after more than 40 years in a French prison over the murder of two diplomats that include the American.
Abdallah was arrested in 1984 and in 1987 he was handed a life imprisonment in connection with his role in killing US military attache, Charles Robert Ray, and Israeli diplomat, Yacov Barsimantov, in Paris.
A French appeals court mid this month granted Abdallah bail on condition that he left the French territory and never returns. He walked out of prison in southwest France on Friday and followed this on Saturday with arrival at home town in Lebanon.
The United States protests that Lebanon released and deported the French government to Lebanon convicted terrorists Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, State Department miscellaneous spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said in a statement in a social media.
His freedom poses serious risks to US diplomats working overseas as well as a great travesty of justice on the part of the victims and their affected families. As America, we will always encourage that justice is sought in this case.”
Though it was noted that Abdallah could have been released since 1999, the earlier applications to be released were shot down because the United States, as a civil party to the case, had always been against his exit out of prison.
The Lebanese, a Maronite Christian, Abdallah, had claimed he was never a criminal but a fighter of the rights of Palestinians, who according to him were targeted, together with Lebanon, by the United States and Israel.
