October 1984 – October 2024: 40 years in prison, that’s enough!
We hereby publish an unofficial translation of a call we have received from the Unitary Campaign for the Liberation of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah.
October 7! The news is official: on October 7, 2024, the sentence application court will hold a hearing at Lannemezan to rule on the demand for conditional release and expulsion filed more than a year ago by Georges Abdallah’s lawyer.
October 1984 – October 2024: this decisive hearing will take place few days before the 40 years of detention in France of our comrade.
October 1984 – October 2024: we expect this hearing will lead to release Georges Abdallah, this prisoner of exception, the longest political detainee in France and, with no doubts, in Europe.
October 1984 – October 2024: 40 years of detention after a conviction ruled following an unfair political-police setup and a first lawyer betraying his client by working for the secret services, 40 years of detention despite the end of his security sentence already 25 years ago, 40 years of detention while two of his requests of release were accepted at first instance… and then rejected on appeal from the public prosecutor’s office serving those in power!
On October 7, Georges Abdallah must be released! He who had to face exceptional measures and laws worsening the standards of the “rule of law” (special assize court, security detention, etc.) since the beginning.
On October 7, Georges Abdallah must be released! He whose maintenance of life conviction has been denounced by numerous institutions and even by former senior officials of the country.
On October 7, Georges Abdallah must be released! He who has already filed nine requests for release. The last one, dating from 2012, having been accepted… just waiting the signature by the Minister of the Interior of an expulsion order, which E. Valls (like his successors) refused to do. This denial of a court decision was thus commented on in 2022 by the public rapporteur of the administrative court:
“Such a solution [the rejection of the motion filed by the lawyer of Georges Abdallah] is hardly satisfactory, but no other seems possible within the legal framework. It is to be hoped that the situation of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah could evolve in other ways.” […] “It is quite obvious that the continued detention of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, for almost thirty-eight years, has been obeying considerations of an extra-legal nature which we do not get.”
On October 7, Georges Abdallah must be released! He who had therefore constantly been the object of pressures from political power, as when a minister of justice, J.-J. Urvoas, took the liberty of announcing that “real life conviction” applies to Georges Abdallah. He who has also been the object on many occasions of pressure from the highest United States authorities, demanding that the French government find the way to keep Georges Abdallah in prison.
On October 7, Georges Abdallah must be released! He whose country, Lebanon has been officially demanding its return for a long time.
On October 7, Georges Abdallah must be released! We, signatories of this text, proclaim it and demand it and we will not stop to chant, write, display and demonstrate during a new and powerful month of mobilization, until this date of October 7.
This equilibrium of forces, a decisive issue for the liberation of our comrade, we have built it for many years. Today we are thousands and thousands, in France and around the world, to mobilize, in various forms and while respecting our diversity, to achieve our sole goal: to free Georges Abdallah.
As our comrade says: “Victory or victory!”. It is why we will not give up until this victory, and this in fully respecting the political identity of Georges Abdallah, a Lebanese revolutionary militant, communist, combatant of the struggle of liberation of the Palestinian people. The one who will be released is indeed a symbol of resistance to oppression, who has never given up during these long 40 years behind the bars. But it is in this fight of his entire life that we also recognize the essential internationalist solidarity with the struggles of peoples for their liberation and their legitimate right of freedom from exploitation and domination.
In the final point of this new legal offensive launched by Georges Abdallah, all of us, signatories of this text, we commit to support his approach by making it sound everywhere we will be, until this hearing on October 7 is held – and if it it is necessary even afterwards, specially on October 26 when a new national demonstration will take place in Lannemezan – to increasingly accentuate the pressure on the French State and finally succeed in making it bend.
So, let’s increase the pressure even more to achieve victory, having in mind what Georges Abdallah told us in 2022: “The various solidarity initiatives that you have developed in this international campaign for a month has provided a clear denial to those who were expecting a decline in your mobilization.”
Let’s make thousand initiatives flourish from September 7 to October 7, 2024 for this international month of coordinated actions, everywhere in France, in the streets and in the neighborhoods, in the universities and even in the Assembly, on the walls and in the media, and internationally in front of French embassies and consulates.
Let’s make thousand initiatives flourish to finally achieve the freedom of Georges Abdallah by making our solidarity clamor heard: “Georges Abdallah, your comrades are here!”
40 years in prison, a whole life of combat! Freedom for Georges Abdallah!
On October 7, Georges Abdallah must be released! On October 7, Georges Abdallah will be free!
Paris, August 22, 2024
Unitary Campaign for the Liberation of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah
Campagne.unitaire.gabdallah@gmail.com
Facebook : pour la libération de Georges Abdallah
Instagram : cuplgia – Tweeter : CupLGIA
Primeros firmantes:
Campagne Unitaire pour la libération de Georges Abdallah
Collectif pour la Libération de Georges Ibrahim Abdallah (CLGIA)
Le CRI Rouge pour la défense des prisonniers révolutionnaires
Comité d’actions et de soutien aux luttes du peuple marocain
Secours Rouge arabe
Le Comité de défense populaire de Tunisie
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Regarding those actions, Nouvelle Epoque has released a video-compilation of actions done during the last year in 11 different places of France. The actions were done by Jeunes Révolutionnaires and Ligue de la Jeunesse Révolutionnaire:
