Lebanese singer Fadel Shaker, who was wanted as an Islamic militant, surrendered to the country's military intelligence after 12 years in hiding.
This is reported by the Associated Press, citing two representatives of the Lebanese security service and two representatives of the judiciary.
Fadel Shaker had been in hiding since street clashes between Sunni Muslim militants and the Lebanese army in June 2013 in the coastal city of Sidon. He was sentenced in absentia to 22 years in prison in 2020 for supporting a “terrorist group.”
The previous evening, Lebanese military intelligence reached one of the entrances to the Ein el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp near Sidon and detained Shaker, who had been hiding there for over 12 years.
Unnamed officials told the AP that now that the man is in the custody of Lebanese authorities, the sentences he received while in hiding will be overturned and he will be questioned in preparation for trial on new charges of crimes against the military.
Shaker had previously denied any role in the clashes in Sidon and said he had never advocated bloodshed.
A 2013 clash between followers of former Sunni imam Ahmad al-Assir and the Lebanese army left at least 18 soldiers dead and deepened sectarian tensions in Lebanon between Sunnis and Shiites .
In a video uploaded to YouTube on the second day of street fighting in Sidon, Shaker called his enemies pigs and dogs and mocked the military, saying: “We have two rotting corpses that we ripped from you yesterday.”
Shaker became a pop star throughout the Arab world in 2002, and almost 10 years later he came under the influence of al-Assir and surprised fans by appearing alongside the radical cleric at rallies and later announcing that he was quitting singing to become closer to God.
This July, he and his son Mohammed released a new song that went viral in the Arabic-speaking world and received over 113 million views on YouTube.
The singer's arrest came as the Lebanese army began the process of removing weapons from 12 Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon that were closed to local authorities.
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