MANU PINEDA, EUROPEAN DEPUTY, STEPS UP TO GEORGES ABDALLAH

“Where is the separation of powers? Why in 2003, when the Court of Pau ordered his release, the executive power decided to intervene to prevent it? Why in 2012, when the Paris Sentencing Tribunal ended up ruling favorably for Georges' release, Manuel Valls, then Minister of the Interior, refused to sign his extradition? It is a shame to say it, but the fate of our comrade is played out at the Elysée Palace and not in court ”.

“However, his release this year is more urgent than ever. The United Nations, through the voice of High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, called at the start of the pandemic for the release of political prisoners and the most vulnerable prisoners. Georges is in these two categories and the least we can say is that the French government should not remain deaf to this request, if only for a question of humanity.

Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, Lebanese communist and anti-imperialist activist has now been detained for 37 years without interruption. He is not only the political prisoner who has spent the most years in prison in Europe. He is also an exceptional prisoner because he symbolizes what France, the supposed homeland of Human Rights, refuses to recognize: real life imprisonment exists in this country. Thus Georges has totally become a symbol of resistance.

I therefore relay the demand for the immediate release of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah. France, Israel and the United States, allies within the framework of Zionism, are trying to punish and ostracize it. Not only do they fail to do so, but they unintentionally transform it into a symbol of resistance in the heart of Europe. In 37 years in prison, Georges has never ceased to be part of the struggle for a Palestine free from Israeli occupation. And we have never stopped being part of his own struggle for his release. "