Naharnet

Fadel Shaker Charged with Sectarian Incitement, Defamation of Army

State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr charged on Tuesday singer-turned Salafist Fadel Shaker with sectarian incitement through Facebook, reported the National News Agency.

It added that he was also charged with defaming the army and “tarnishing the ties of Lebanon with another country.”

Saqr referred the case to First Military Examining Magistrate Riyad Abou Ghida.

Shaker had fled justice more than a year ago following bloody clashes that erupted in June 2013 in the area of Abra, between the army and supporters of Salafist fugitive cleric Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir.

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 in 2013.

M.T.

G.K.


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