A court in France ordered on Thursday the release from prison of Lebanese Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, after serving almost 40 years for his involvement in attacks against American and Israeli diplomats in France.
Abdallah was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1987 for his role in the murder of American military attaché Charles Ray in Paris and Israeli diplomat Jacob Bar Siman-Tov in 1982, as well as for the attempted assassination of U.S. Consul Robert Homme in Strasbourg in 1984. In the past, the U.S. exerted pressure against the terrorist's release, and it may do so again now.
Jacob Bar Siman-Tov, a Mossad agent working at the Paris embassy, was murdered in Paris in 1982. On the day of the murder, he was returning with his wife and daughter to their home in the 16th arrondissement of the city. As he stood in the building's lobby, a young woman wearing a white beret, Jacqueline Asber, approached and fired five bullets at him - two missed and three hit his head. His 17-year-old son chased the murderer, but she escaped to the subway. His death was confirmed about two hours after the shooting.
French police later discovered a cache of weaponry in his Paris apartment. He was originally arrested by chance during a traffic stop for using forged identification, but was later charged with complicity in the murder and illegal possession of firearms.