October 1984 – October 2024: 40 years in prison, that’s enough!
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
Organisations – First signatories:
United Campaign for the Release of Georges Abdallah
Collective for the Release of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah (CLGIA)
National Campaign for the Release of Georges Abdallah (Lebanon)
Red CRI for the defence of revolutionary prisoners
Committee for action and support for the struggles of the Moroccan people
Arab Red Relief
Revolutionary Youth League (LJR)
The People’s Cause
Young Revolutionaries (JR)
The Popular Defence Committee of Tunisia
Charleroi-Palestine Platform
Communists Revolutionary Party
Pole of Communist Rebirth in France (PRCF)
United Front of Immigrants and Working-Class Neighbourhoods (FUIQP)
Association Femmes Plurielles
Union Locale CGT d’Annecy& Environs (Annecy & Surroundings CGT Local Union)
National Association of Communists (ANC France)
Urgence Palestine Marseille
Association France Palestine Solidarité 63 (AFPS 63)
Poitiers Palestine
Acting against colonialism today
CAPJPO-EuroPalestine
Arab Communist Party
NPA-l’Anticapitaliste-Ariège
Collectif 74 for the Liberation of Georges Abdallah (CLGA74)
Corsica Palestina
Marxist-Leninist Party of Italy (PMLI)
French National Confederation of Labour (CNT-F)
OCML Voie Prolétarienne
Collectif ‘Bassin minier’ pour la libération de Georges Ibrahim Abdallah (62)
Corriente del Pueblo Sol Rojo (Mexico)
Couserans-Palestine Association
Revolutionary Communist Party of France (PCRF)
Collectif Palestine Vaincra
Palestine Action Committee
Collectif 65 for the Liberation of Georges Abdallah (CLGA65)
Georges Abdallah Solidarity Committee Lille
Collective in support of Palestinian resistance (CSRP59)
Ka Ubuntu
Solidarity Indonesia
International Solidarity Movement (ISM-France)
Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist)
Committee for a Just Peace in the Middle East (Luxembourg)
Nouvelle Epoque
Student Trade Union Federation (FSE national)
Anti-Imperialist Collective (Denmark)
Collectif ivryens pour la Palestine
Secours International
Secours rouge de Belgique
Association Per a Pace, Pour la Paix (Corsica)
Urgence Palestine
Perspectives musulmanes
Gaza United Saint-Etienne Committee
Union 42 pour la Palestine
French Union of Muslim Consumers
Student Apprentice Union 69 (SELA 69)
Committee for the release of Georges Abdallah 38
Palestine Committee Hérouville Caen
Action Antifasciste Vienne
Nice Garibaldi Brigade
Union Démocrate Musulmans de France
Union Communiste Libertaire
Thawra 13
Palestine Committee 31
Collectif 69 Palestine Villefranche
Cumitatu di Ricustruzzione di u Partitu Cumunistu (Corsica)
Alba Granada North Africa (Tunisia)
Mouvement des jeunes communistes du Rhône
Netzwerk Freiheit für alle Politische Gefangenen Hamburg (Germany) – ‘Freedom for all political prisoners’ network prisoners’ Hamburg (Germany)
Collectif 69 in support of the Palestinian people
Libérons Georges 33
Secours rouge Montréal (Canada)
French Jewish Union for Peace (UJFP)
Syndicat national lycéen
Front populaire révolutionnaire antifasciste – Clermont-Ferrand (France)
Argenteuil Solidarité Palestine
Student Apprentice Union 38 (SELA 38)
Centro Brasileiro de Solidariedade aos Povos – CEBRASPO (Brazil)
Action Antifasciste Paris Banlieue
Coordinating Committee of the Anti-Imperialist League
AGEB (Union of Migrant Workers in Europe)
PSTA (Partisan Martyrs and Prisoners Families)
Popular Front (Turkey)
Anti-Imperialist Front
CGT Energy Paris
UL CGT Paris 18th
Manouchian Circle
Mar armado de masas
Samidoun Paris Banlieue
Workers’ Party (Turkey)
Friends of Palestine Against Imperialism and Zionism (Turkey)
Soccorso Rosso Proletario (Italy)
International Committee in Support of the People’s War in India (ICSPWI)
Proletari Comunisti (Italy)
Communist Youth 13
Saint-Denis Palestine Committee
CGT-National Federation of Chemical Industries (CGT-FNIC)
Teor ive Politika magazine (Turkey)
La Fosse aux Lyons
New Anti-Capitalist Party (NPA)
Madrid Revolutionary Committee (Spain)
Valencia Revolutionary Committee (Spain)
Albacete Revolutionary Committee (Spain)
Vietnam-Dioxin Collective
Collectif Secours Rouge Marseille
Rassemblement Organisé des Communistes Marxistes Léninistes (ROCML) (Organised Gathering of Marxist-Leninist Communists)
Association France Palestine Solidarité 82
Droits devant !
Defence of the Communist Party of Peru
BDS France Campaign – Montpellier
University Palestine Support Committee – Montpellier
Palestine Solidarity Toulouse
Personalities – First signatories :
Houria Bouteldja – Youssef Boussoumah – Gabriel Casadesùs du Gers – Said Bouamama – René Naba
(writer-journalist) – Nicole Sainz (trade unionist) – Dominique Bathion (trade unionist) – Alima Boumediene Thiery (lawyer – Honorary Member of Parliament) – Martine Roussel – Raymond Blet (honorary lawyer) – Abderrahim AFARKI, (pensioner) – Saliha Ibersiene – Chris Den Hond (video journalist) – Yasmine Kavass – K. Murali (Ajith) – Amparo IBANEZ – Georges Franco (artist painter) – Jean-Pierre Métail – Alain Gresh (journalist) – Marcel Bosonnet (lawyer Switzerland) – Violette Daguerre (psychologist) – Annick COUPE (trade unionist and anti-globalisation activist) – Carole Radureau – Viviane Baudry – Daniel Kupferstein – Alain Guiraudie (film-maker) – Sylvie Pepin Lehalleur (Paimpol France Insoumise) – Marc Forestier (association activist Paris 13) – Jean-Pierre Maillard (former chairman of the Partenia 2000 association) – Joan Raiola (Paris) – Jacques Pepin Lehalleur (Retired teacher – Caen) – Pierre FLAMENT (pacifist, member of the Mouvement de la Paix) – Christian Champiré (former PCF mayor of Grenay, the town that made Georges an ‘honorary citizen’ in 2012) – Patrice Lardeux (militant CGT) – Timothée Esprit – Daniel Larregola, président de l’Association nationale des anciens combattants et ami(e)s de la résistance (ANACR65) – Pierre Carles (director) – Philippe DAUMAS (university pensioner) – Serge ALLEGRE (General Secretary of FNIC-CGT) – Jean-Baptiste Eyraud (housing activist) – Aline Pailler (journalist and former Member of the European Parliament)
October 1984 – October 2024: 40 years in prison, that’s enough!
