Beirut (11:38) Huge deployment of security forces around the French embassy for fears of demonstrations after a likely postponement of the deportation from France of jailed Lebanese national Georges Abdallah. (Lebanese media)

UPDATE (17:04) France has delayed the release of Georges Abdallah until the end of the month. Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati told the French envoy in Beirut such a step was not justified.

Demonstrators are currently blocking the road leading to the French embassy in Mathaf, protesting the postponement of Abdallah’s release. (Daily Star/Lebanese media)

Background: Abdallah serves a life sentence in France for murdering an US military attaché and an Israeli diplomat in Paris in 1982. The circumstances of his involvement were not totally clear.

At that time Abdallah was head of the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Factions (LARF), which was formed after the dissolution of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – External Operations (PFLP-EO) of Wadie Haddad.

In March 1978, Haddad died in East-Berlin of a disease, which doctors were unable to diagnose. Recent reports indicate he may have been poisoned with toxic chocolate by the Israeli intelligence service Mossad.

According to Russian sources, Haddad was an agent of the former Russian security agency KGB.