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LANNEMEZAN, France: One of France’s longest-held inmates, the pro-Palestinian Lebanese militant Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, 74, was released from prison and deported on Friday, after more than 40 years behind bars for the killings of two diplomats.

At around 3:40 am (01:40 GMT), a convoy of six vehicles left the Lannemezan penitentiary with lights flashing, AFP journalists saw.

Hours later, he was placed on a plane bound for Lebanon.

As he disembarked in Beirut, he was welcomed by family members 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.

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 attache Charles Robert Ray and Israeli diplomat Yacov Barsimantov in Paris.

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 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.

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 the crimes and given his age.

KHARTOUM: Stalked by war and hunger for two years, more and more Sudanese civilians are desperately seeking safety in Europe, braving perilous crossings of the Libyan desert and the Mediterranean Sea.

More than four million Sudanese have fled abroad since the war between the regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) erupted in 2023. Over 10 million more have been displaced inside the country, according to UN figures.

The Mixed Migration Center, a research and policy organization, reported a 20 percent increase in the number of Sudanese trying to reach Europe via Libya this year.

AFP has gathered firsthand accounts from those scattered along the route — some still waiting for a way out, others stuck in Libya and a few who have reached the relative safety of Europe but remain haunted by what they left behind.

Ibrahim Yassin, 20, left eastern Sudan in December 2023, “hoping to reach Libya, and then Europe.”

“The journey across the desert was hellish... extreme thirst and entire days without food.”

In Libya, smugglers demanded $3,000 to continue his journey. Unable to pay, he fled to Tripoli, “hoping to find another opportunity.”

In Tripoli, a second group offered a sea crossing for $3,500, which his relatives sent after selling the family home in Sudan.

“We sailed for eight hours, before the Libyan coast guard caught us and put us in jail.”

Another $1,000 secured his release. His second attempt ended the same way.

Now, he is stranded in Tripoli — broke, undocumented and out of options.

“Now I’m lost,” he said. “No papers, no way back to Sudan and no way to reach Europe.”

Naima Azhari, 35, was living with her husband and daughter in Soba, south of Khartoum, when the war erupted.

“I thought it would last a week or two. But when the RSF took control of Khartoum, we realized there was no hope.”

In August 2023, they set out for Libya. The 10-day journey was fraught with danger.

“At every checkpoint, you pay a bribe or they threaten you. We went from one militia zone to another.”

But Tripoli offered no relief. “No stability. No jobs. Libya was even harder than the war itself.”

Naima considered returning to Sudan, but there was no safe route.

In October 2024, the family moved again — this time to Egypt, where they finally found “a better life.”

Until June 2023, Hassan, a 40-year-old civil servant, lived quietly with his wife and three children in the Darfur city of Geneina.

But then the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces began targeting the Masalit ethnic minority to which he belongs.

“They assassinated governor Khamis Abakar, who I was close to,” Hasan recalled, asking that his real name be withheld for safety reasons.

He said he and others were detained when they spoke out.

“We were beaten and tortured. They said: ‘Slaves, we have to get rid of you’.”

In January, the United States determined that the RSF had “committed genocide” in Darfur with their “systematic” targeting of ethnic minorities including the Masalit.

Hassan escaped across the desert into Libya, where he was held for two months in “an overcrowded place where migrants are exploited, insulted and beaten.”

He eventually boarded a boat and spent two days at sea before landing in Italy.

From there, he made his way to France, where he sought political asylum. Now employed in a factory, he is trying to locate his children.

“Someone on Facebook told me they were in a refugee camp in Chad. I started the process of bringing them here, but unfortunately they have no documents.

“I can’t return to Sudan, I have to bring them here. That’s my only goal now.”

Abdelaziz Bashir, 42, once lived a modest but stable life in the city of Omdurman, just across the Nile from Khartoum.

“Everything changed in an instant,” forcing him to flee to the eastern city of Gedaref with his family.

Though now technically safe, “I’m just sitting around, there’s no work, and the economic situation gets worse every day.”

Unable to provide for his family, he has set his sights on reaching Europe.

“I know the road is dangerous, that I could die in the desert or at sea, but I have no other choice.

“It’s my only hope. If I succeed, I can change my family’s life. If I fail, at least I will have tried.”