One of France's longest-held inmates, the pro-Palestinian Lebanese militant Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, arrived in Beirut on Friday, having been released from prison after more than 40 years behind bars for the killings of two diplomats.
At around 3:40 am (0140 GMT), a convoy of six vehicles with flashing lights left the Lannemezan prison in southwest France, AFP journalists saw.
Hours later, the 74-year-old was placed on a plane and deported back to Lebanon, to be welcomed by family members on his return to Beirut at the airport's VIP lounge.
Dozens of supporters, some waving Palestinian or Lebanese Communist Party flags, gathered near the arrivals' hall to give him a hero's reception, an AFP correspondent said.
In his first public address after being released, Abdallah took aim at Israel's ongoing war in the Gaza Strip, where human rights organizations have warned of mass starvation.
"The children of Palestine are dying of hunger while millions of Arabs watch," he said.
"Resistance must continue and intensify," added the former schoolteacher.
Abdallah's family had said previously they would take him to their hometown of Kobayat, in northern Lebanon, where a reception is planned.
Abdallah was detained in 1984 and sentenced to life in prison in 1987 for his involvement in the murders of US military attaché Charles Robert Ray and Israeli diplomat Yacov Barsimantov in Paris.
'Past symbol'
The Paris Court of Appeal had ordered his release "effective July 25" on the condition that he leave French territory and never return.
While he had been eligible for release since 1999, his previous requests were denied with the United States -a civil party to the case- consistently opposing him leaving prison.
Inmates serving life sentences in France are typically freed after fewer than 30 years.
Abdallah's lawyer, Jean-Louis Chalanset, visited him for a final time on Thursday.
"He seemed very happy about his upcoming release, even though he knows he is returning to the Middle East in an extremely tough context for Lebanese and Palestinian populations," Chalanset told AFP.
The chargé d'affaires of the Lebanese Embassy in Paris, Ziad Taan, who saw Georges Abdallah before his departure, told AFP that he was "well, in good health, very happy to return to Lebanon to his family and to regain his freedom".
AFP visited Abdallah last week after the court's release decision, accompanying a lawmaker to the detention center.
The founder of the Lebanese Revolutionary Armed Factions (FARL) -a long-disbanded Marxist anti-Israel group- said for more than four decades he had continued to be a "militant with a struggle".
After his arrest in 1984, French police discovered submachine guns and transceiver stations in one of his Paris apartments.
The appeals court in February noted that the FARL "had not committed a violent action since 1984" and that Abdallah "today represented a past symbol of the Palestinian struggle".
The appeals judges also found the length of his detention "disproportionate" to his crimes, and pointed to his age.
AFP
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