PARIS, July 20 -- A French court on Thursday ordered the conditional release of a Lebanese pro-Palestinian communist militant after more than 40 years in detention in France.

Georges Ibrahim Abdallah was serving a life sentence for complicity in the murders of two diplomats, one American and one Israeli, in Paris in 1982.

The Paris Court of Appeal ruled Abdallah, who has been imprisoned in France since his arrest in 1984, can be released next Friday on the condition that he leave the country and never return, judicial authorities said.

His lawyer, Jean-Louis Chalanset, told reporters that Abdallah wants to return to Lebanon upon his release and remains "a communist militant who supports the Palestinian struggle and fights against the i...