Activists lobbying for the release of jailed Lebanese leftist Georges Ibrahim Abdallah accused France of psychologically torturing him after a series of rejected parole appeals and postponements.
According to a statement released by the International Campaign for the Release of Georges Abdallah, the decision to keep the 63 year old in jail is “tantamount to psychological torture as described in the international Convention against Torture which France has ratified.”
Abdallah was arrested in Lyon in October 1984 and condemned three years later to life in prison for alleged involvement in the killing of an Israeli diplomat and an American military attache in Paris in 1982.
Abdallah should have been released in 1999 by virtue of France's penal code, but Paris has rejected nine appeals for his release.
His supporters have accused the United States and Israel of lobbying to keep Abdallah behind bars.
Thursday’s statement was released after a French court postponed a new appeal hearing set for Thursday to an undetermined date.
The court initially approved Abdallah’s release in 2012, but France's interior minister refused to sign off on his deportation.
The statement urged the Lebanese government to press its French allies to release Abdallah, arguing that his detention contradicted the friendly ties between the two states.
