Israel, through its embassy in Paris, expressed its “regret” over the decision of a French appeals court on Thursday to release Lebanese terrorist Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, 74, who served 40 years of a life sentence for his role in the murder of Israeli and American diplomats in 1982.
Abdallah is a “terrorist responsible for the murders of the Israeli diplomat Yaacov Barsiman-Tov, killed in front of his wife and daughter, and the American diplomat Charles Ray. Such terrorists, enemies of the free world, should spend their lives in prison,” the embassy said.
📣 Communiqué de presse concernant la décision de libérer Georges Ibrahim Abdallah de la prison. pic.twitter.com/IDGUoJ95Xr
— Ambassade d'Israël en France (@IsraelenFrance) July 17, 2025
The Paris Appeals Court agreed to release Abdallah on July 25, arguing that he posed “no serious risk in terms of committing new terrorism acts,” Reuters reported.
The decision upholds an earlier one from Nov. 15, 2024, by a French court, which ordered Abdallah to be released on Dec. 6 of last year. That ruling was suspended when the prosecution appealed, Le Monde reported.
The United States and France’s general prosecutor opposed Abdallah’s release. Although he had been eligible for parole since 1999, all his past applications had been turned down, except in 2013, when he was granted release if he left France. Then-Interior Minister Manuel Valls refused to enforce the order, and Abdallah remained behind bars, Le Monde reported.
Abdallah, former head of the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Factions (LARF), a Marxist-Leninist terrorist group, was detained in 1984 and convicted in 1987 for complicity in the murder of the aforementioned U.S. Army Lt. Col. Ray and Israeli diplomat Barsiman-Tov. Both men were 43.
On Jan. 18, 1982, Ray, serving as assistant army attaché in Paris, was gunned down by a lone terrorist as he was walking to his car, The New York Times reported at the time. Witnesses said a Middle Eastern-looking man approached Ray, pulled out a 7.65-mm pistol, and shot him in the forehead, according to the report.
“He was a distinguished Military Intelligence officer, a decorated Vietnam veteran, and serving his first assignment as a military attaché. He was married with two children. President Ronald Reagan promoted Ray to Colonel posthumously on 3 June 1982,” according to the Defense Intelligence Agency website.
A lone terrorist also shot Barsiman-Tov. On April 3, 1982, a woman in a white beret approached and shot him three times in the head with a 7.65-mm pistol. He died two hours later.
“His wife and 8-year-old daughter were with him at the time of the attack, according to French and Israeli officials,” The New York Times reported.
The Paris embassy was the Israeli diplomat’s first assignment, where he served as second secretary in charge of political affairs.
Abdallah’s group took credit for both murders.
Abdallah was also convicted in the attempted murder of U.S. Consul General Robert Homme in Strasbourg in 1984.
Abdallah’s lawyer, Jean-Louis Chalanset, told the press that his client intends to return to Lebanon and remains “a communist militant who supports the Palestinian struggle and fights against the invasion of his country by Israel,” the Associated Press reported.
“He has never renounced his convictions,” Chalanset said.
Noting U.S opposition to Abdallah’s release, the lawyer called it “also a political victory, even after nearly 41 years in detention, against the United States.”
