Move FM Global News

BEIRUT, Lebanon: A Lebanese pop singer who became an Islamist militant appeared in a Beirut court this week for the first time after spending 12 years in hiding.

Fadel Shaker, once a popular star across the Arab world, had been hiding in the Ein el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp since June 2013, when heavy fighting broke out between Sunni Muslim militants and the Lebanese army in the southern city of Sidon.

In 2020, a court sentenced him in absentia to 22 years in prison for supporting a terrorist group.

As part of a deal that convinced him to surrender earlier this month, those old sentences will be dropped, and he will face new questioning about alleged crimes against the military. The court session was his first round of questioning.

During the 2013 clashes, Shaker appeared in a YouTube video insulting the army and saying his group had killed soldiers. At least 18 soldiers died in that battle, which also involved followers of hardline cleric Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir.

Shaker first rose to fame with a hit song in 2002, but nearly a decade later, he became close to al-Assir and quit music, saying he wanted to be closer to God.

In recent years, he has slowly returned to releasing songs. Earlier this year, he and his son, Mohammed, released a track that has been viewed over 127 million times on YouTube.