New U.S.-France Split Develops Over Accused Terrorist’s Sentence

A new French-American row blew up Saturday, with Paris accusing Washington of “unacceptable . . . regrettable interference in French affairs” by criticizing a French court’s handling of a suspected terrorist said to be involved in the killing of a U.S. diplomat.

It is most unusual for an embassy to publicly attack decisions of its host country’s legal system.

Foreign Minister Jean-Bernard Raimond summoned U.S. Charge d’Affaires William Barraclough to express the French indignation.

The problem arose just a week after French President Francois Mitterrand and President Reagan, meeting amid the euphoria of the 100th birthday of the Statue of Liberty, had supposedly patched up U.S.-French relations.

The ties were strained by France’s refusal to grant overflight rights to U.S. aircraft that bombed Libya on April l5. France considered the strike an inappropriate response to terrorism purportedly backed by Libya.

Heavily Charged Word

The U.S. Embassy in Paris on Friday expressed “surprise”--a heavily charged word in diplomatic language--that a Lyon court sentenced alleged Lebanese terrorist Georges Ibrahim Abdallah to four years on an arms possession conviction. The four years were “a lighter sentence than we have seen in similar cases in other European countries,” said the U.S. statement.

Abdallah has been charged separately in Paris with complicity in the murders of U.S. military attache Col. Charles M. Ray in 1982 and Israeli diplomat Yacov Bartsimentov in 1984.

The embassy, concerned over reports Abdallah might be swapped for French hostages in Lebanon, said it hopes that Abdallah, “who makes no secret of his violent intentions against Americans, will serve his full term.”

‘Serious Lack of Knowledge’

Raimond, quoted in a Foreign Ministry communique, said the statement showed “a serious lack of knowledge of the principle of the independence of justice.”

The embassy statement also criticized the Lyon prosecutor for referring to Abdallah’s crime as political.

France reportedly had been willing to exchange Abdallah after a Frenchman was released in Lebanon last year, but backed off when a gun, allegedly used to kill Ray and Bartsimentov, was found in an apartment rented in Abdallah’s name.

Abdallah’s release was demanded by groups who set a series of bombs in central Paris late last year.

U.S. concern that Abdallah might not stand trial in connection with Ray’s murder was underscored Friday when the U.S. government and Ray’s family became parties to the Paris case against Abdallah, which is being prepared by a French investigating magistrate.

Under French procedure, the magistrate could eventually find there was no case to back the charges against Abdallah, and French newspapers Friday said this was what his lawyers had sought.

Such a finding would clear the way for his exchange for one or more of seven French hostages held by guerrillas in Lebanon, the papers said.