Abdallah Lawyer Admits He Worked for Spy Agency

PARIS —  A lawyer who represented Lebanese terrorist Georges Ibrahim Abdallah until last year has admitted that he also worked for the French counterintelligence agency and informed on his client.

The Council of the Order of Lawyers has opened a disciplinary hearing into the conduct of lawyer Jean-Paul Mazurier.

Abdallah, a leader of the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Factions, was recently sentenced to life in prison for complicity in the murders of an American and an Israeli diplomat and the attempted murder of another American official. Mazurier did not represent Abdallah in that case.

But Mazurier did represent Abdallah in the July, 1986, Lyon trial in which Abdallah was convicted of criminal association and possession of arms and false documents and given a four-year prison sentence.

Interviewed on French television Friday, Mazurier said he agreed to become a double agent for reasons that he deemed just.

But he said: “I merit the sanctions that will be taken. . . . I violated all the duties of my profession.”

The president of the Paris Bar Assn., Mario Stasi, said the affair could affect Abdallah’s sentence.

A soon to be published book, “Black Agent, A Mole in the Abdallah Affair,” reveals in detail the lawyer’s role as an agent. It says Mazurier began to work for the counterintelligence agency known as the DGSE in August, 1984.

Mazurier said Abdallah in 1982 handed him a printed claim of responsibility, with blank spaces, for an upcoming attack.

“There, I realized that he had taken me completely out of my role (as lawyer),” Mazurier said.