Georges Abdallah.

A court in Paris has approved the release of convicted murderer Georges Abdallah, according to Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot. Abdallah, has been serving a life sentence since 1987 for the murder of Yaakov Bar-Simantov, an Israeli diplomat, and Charles R. Ray, a U.S. Army officer.

Abdallah’s lawyer Jacques Vergès told the court that Abdallah is a model prisoner, and he intends to return to Lebanon to teach the youth.

Abdallah shot Bar-Simantov three times in the head, in front of his wife and children.

He has released communiques from prison in solidarity with prisoners from other terrorist groups including Action Directe and Grapo. Abdallah has been eligible for parole since 1999, but until now, his requests have been turned down. In 2003, a local court granted him parole, but the French minster of Justice intervened, describing the Abdallah case as “extremely serious.”

According to Al-Akhbar.com, Vergès told a French TV station that Abdallah’s “imprisonment is a scandal, a shame for France. It is time for French justice to act, not like the whore of an American pimp, but like an independent justice (system.)” In 2007, Verges urged the French court “to show our condescending American friends that France is not a submissive girl.”