An Appeals Court will soon decide the fate of Lebanese leftist militant Georges Abdallah, who has been jailed for nearly three decades in France, the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat reported on Sunday.
The newspaper said there was a general belief that a decision would be taken by the court on Feb. 28 to release him.
It said Abdallah's deportation had been postponed due to the “political decision” of the French interior minister, hinting that France was coming under American pressure.
The militant was jailed for life in 1987 after being convicted in the 1982 murders of U.S. military attache Charles Robert Ray and Israeli diplomat Yacov Barsimantov.
However, a French court last year granted parole for the former head of the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Faction (LARF), provided he was deported back to his home country. The court then postponed a final decision, drawing ire from Lebanon.
Abdallah has been eligible for parole since 1999, but seven previous applications were all rejected.
Last month, U.S. Representative Grace Meng urged France not to release him, drawing up a bipartisan letter with around 50 members of Congress calling on France to scrap the possible release.
The letter was handed to French President Francois Hollande.
The International Campaign to Free George Abdallah has accused Paris of being a proxy for the U.S. But French Ambassador Patrice Paoli has denied any U.S. role in the delay to release him.
The campaign dismantled on January 30 a tent it had erected outside the mission after the Lebanese government tasked a ministerial committee with following up the case.
