Shaker Residing in Ain el-Hilweh, Says Relations with Asir Cut

Singer turned fugitive Islamist Fadel Shaker stressed on Saturday that his ties with Salafist cleric Sheikh Ahmed Asir has ended after the 2013 Abra clashes.

“I will not hand my self over to the judiciary,” Shaker said in comments to al-Fajr radio station, denying that he assaulted the military during the clashes with the army in the southern town of Abra, near the city of Sidon.

Shaker had fled justice more than a year ago following bloody incidents that erupted in June 2013 in Abra, between the army and supporters of al-Asir.

Sidon’s clashes were the most intense bouts of violence in Lebanon linked to the conflict in Syria, and have resulted in the death of at least 16 troops.

Al-Asir, is still on the run.

Shaker rejected any negotiations to enhance his situation, revealing that he is currently residing the southern Ain el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp.

He considered that there's no “Lebanese authority in Lebanon because of the control imposed by Hizbuallah and Iran.”

Shaker also denied that his son Mohammed will become a singer, describing the entertainment field as “trash.”

Now in his mid-forties, Shaker was born to a Palestinian mother and Lebanese father in the country's biggest Palestinian refugee camp, Ain el-Hilweh.

Shaker became the best-known face of Asir's small movement of openly sectarian Sunni radicals and praised the cleric as "the lion of the Sunnis".

Judicial authorities have issued a detention order for Asir and 123 of his supporters, including Shaker, whose brother was killed in clashes with the army in Sidon last year.