The Daily Star: France’s envoy to Lebanon Patrice Paoli urged patience Tuesday in the case of the deportation of George Abdallah, a day after delays in the release of the leftist militant sparked protests in front of the French Embassy.

Paoli, speaking to reporters following a meeting with Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour, urged the Lebanese to wait for the decision by French judiciary on Jan. 28.

On Monday, the head of the Lebanese Communist party said Abdallah’s deportation had been delayed to Jan 28. Abdallah had been expected in the country much earlier.

The French envoy acknowledged Tuesday that the French court decision to delay Abdallah’s release had provoked an angry reaction by supporters of the 61-year-old.

Mansour discussed with Paoli the delay in Abdallah’s deportation from France to Lebanon.

Last week, a French court ruled Abdallah be released on condition that he be deported back to Lebanon, but the French Interior Ministry had not signed the order to expel him by Monday.

The prisoner’s brother, Joseph Abdallah, said the only explanation for the delay was that the French judiciary had “succumbed to U.S. pressure.”

Abdallah was arrested in 1984 and later convicted by a French court in the 1982 murders in Paris of Israeli diplomat Yaakov Bar-Simantov and Lt. Col. Charles Ray, an American military attache.

He was also implicated in the attempted assassination of U.S. Consul General Robert Homme in Strasbourg in 1984.

Dozens of relatives and friends of George Abdallah rallied outside the French Embassy in Beirut Monday to protest the delay in his release.

They also briefly blocked the main street leading to the French Embassy and clashed with police after egg- and stone- throwing demonstrators were prevented from storming the mission premises.

Prime Minister Najib Mikati criticized France’s decision and urged Paris to allow the process of Abdallah’s release from prison to proceed.

About a dozen protesters were remained Tuesday in the tent they had set up near a Lebanese Army post opposite the lane of the French Embassy in Beirut.