BEIRUT: Riot police closed off the street leading to the French embassy in Beirut Sunday, blocking the way of several dozen supporters of Leftist militant George Abdallah who turned out to protest his continued incarceration in France.

Demonstrators gathered before the security barrier, with organizer Bassam Kantar denouncing the security forces for preventing the protest from nearing the embassy, "perhaps so that the shouts of activists demanding freedom for George Abdallah do not reach the ears of [French ambassador] Patrice Paoli and all the oppressors who insist on imprisoning this Lebanese militant, this oppressed citizen."

Abdallah was scheduled to be released and sent back to Lebanon in January after spending 29 years in prison for killing an Israeli diplomat and an American military attache, but the French Interior Ministry has twice denied the deportation order. A new hearing has been set for March 21.