On Friday, a French court ordered the conditional release of a pro-Palestinian Arab terrorist who assassinated two US Army officers and an Israeli diplomat between 1982 and 1984. The killer, Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, was involved in dozens of other attacks.
Abdallah was convicted in France in 1987. He was sentenced to two life sentences for murdering US Colonel Charles R. Ray and Israeli Diplomat Yaacov Barsimantov. In 1984, he was also extradited by Italy where three of his operatives likely killed U.S. General Leamon R. Hunt.
Since then, Abdallah has remained defiant. He was without remorse at 11 parole hearings dating back to 1999. French prosecutors have warned that if released, he might attack again.
Despite this fact, French courts have sought to release Abdallah as far back as 2013. When the US objected, French interior minister, Manuel Valls, blocked Abdallah's parole. His new parole date is now set for December 6, 2024. This time, there are no signs of renewed US intervention or even interest.
The United States needs to act now. If it cannot persuade France to cancel the parole, the US has a valid claim to charge Abdallah with Ray and Hunt’s murders. The US has always extended extraterritorial jurisdiction upon those who murder US officers, diplomats, and service members abroad.
Although superseded by newer statutes, 18 USCS § 1114 was the law when Abdallah killed our servicemen. It has no statute of limitations for murder.
It therefore seems that the US has to once again finish a job for the French. Charge Abdallah with his crimes. Extradite him. Convict him in a US court.
I reached out to the US Justice Department to see if they had plans to stop Abdallah’s release, coordinate with the French, or explore extradition. They have not responded.
Italy also has a right to extradite Abdallah as Hunt’s assassination occurred in Rome. If the US does not act, Prime Minister Georgia Meloni should. Italy issued an extradition order for Abdallah to France in 1984. Inquiries to the Italian State Police and Prime Minister Georgia Meloni office did not receive responses.
Israel could also pursue extradition, but the French are currently imposing an embargo of armaments to the Jewish State. They would probably embargo a convicted terrorist next (Excuse the black humor).
Two cold-blooded murders
On January 18, 1982, Abdallah ambushed US Army Colonel Charles R. Ray on the street of Paris. Ray was serving as a military attaché in Paris. At 9:00 a.m. Abdallah shot Ray point-blank in the back of the head with a pistol as he walked to his car. Ray was a Vietnam veteran, married, and had two children.
Twelve weeks later, on April 3, 1982, Abdallah’s girlfriend and co-conspirator, Jacqueline Esber, shot Israeli diplomat Yaacov Barsimantov five times outside his family’s Paris apartment. Barsimantov, 42, was stationed in Paris along with his wife, eight-year-old daughter, and son Avi. In an act of bravery, his son, 17 at the time, chased the armed assassin into the Paris Metro.
In a subsequent search of Abdallah’s and Esber’s Paris hideout, Police found a Czech-made 7.65-caliber pistol, 55 pounds of explosives, two rockets, and submachine guns and other weapons. The pistol was a ballistics match with the weapon that killed Barsimantov and Ray.
Other evidence tying this evil duo to the crimes included a lease for the apartment where they stored the pistol and other weapons. In an act of overconfidence or stupidity, Esber had signed the lease. Further, the duo opened a Swiss bank account used to pay for the weapons and the rent. Their fingerprints were everywhere. Abdallah’s handwriting was found on a map in a stolen getaway car. He had written down the street address of one of the victims.
For French leftists who question the conviction there is also the matter of a very public confession. Abdallah and Esber were members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Abdallah also founded and led the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Faction (LARF). Under his orders, LARF publicly accepted responsibility for murdering Ray, Barsimantov, and later Hunt.
Abdallah was arrested and convicted. Esber escaped to Lebanon. She was convicted by a French court in absentia. She evaded justice and died in 2016.
And another:
General Hunt was gunned down outside his temporary home in a Rome suburb on February 15, 1984. Hunt was then supervising the peacekeeping operation in the Sinai Desert created in 1978 following the Camp David Accords.
As Hunt and his driver were waiting for a gate to open, three gunmen emerged from a Fiat across the street. They opened fire. One jumped on the trunk of Hunt’s car. Although it was an armored vehicle, the terrorist got a lucky shot through the upper edge of the rear window, killing Hunt.
While LARF claimed responsibility for the attack, General Hunt’s assassination is supposedly more complicated. That is because another group, the Italian Red Brigades, also claimed credit.
In fact, the two terror groups were connected. Abdallah’s LARF was known to be a hired gun among the fraternity of violent communist, anti-Israel, and Anti-American terror groups in the 1980s. Both the CIA and the US State Department have confirmed links between them. The CIA also confirmed many of the conclusions of the French and Italian courts in a report declassified in 2018.
Neither Abdallah, nor anyone else, has ever been charged in connection with General Hunt’s murder. Isn’t it time for an American jury to decide?
LARF also claimed responsibility for three other attacks on Americans, including the unsuccessful assassination of acting U.S. Ambassador to France Christian Chapman in 1981, the wounding of U.S. Consul General Robert Homme in Strasbourg in 1984 and the attempted bombing on U.S. Embassy staffer Roderick Grant in 1982. All told, Abdallah and LARF’s body count reached 12, and 250 wounded.
Even though a French anti-terrorism prosecutor subsequently said he will try and appeal the court’s order to release Abdallah, France is not a reliable anti-terrorism partner. Regardless of how that appeal goes (assuming it is filed at all), The US and Italy should intervene now.
US intervention before Abdallah’s December 6 release will cost nearly nothing. It will also send a strong message that The US neither forgives nor forgets when our servicemen and our allies are murdered by our enemies on foreign streets.
Rami Chris Robbins is a Jewish American writer who focuses on Middle East issues and policy.