Supporters of radical cleric Ahmad al-Assir rally Friday in Saida. (Credit: Mountasser Abdallah/L'Orient-Le Jour)
BEIRUT— Supporters of jihadist sheikh Ahmad al-Assir, who is currently serving out a sentence for his role in the deadly 2013 clashes in Saida’s Abra area, held a rally Friday in the southern city to demand his release, L’Orient Today’s correspondent in the city reported.
Here’s what we know:
• Following the Friday Muslim communal prayers, several supporters of the radical cleric held a protest to call for the release of Assir and other detainees linked to the jihadist sheikh, claiming that the sentences handed down to the convicts were based on “confessions extracted from torture” and “opression of the Sunnis.”
• Army and ISF units deployed to the scene of the rally, which was not marred by any security incidents, our correspondent reported.
• Assir was sentenced to death in Sep. 2017 for the fighting in the Abra suburb of Saida, which pitted Assir’s supporters against Lebanese army troops. Assir’s supporters killed 18 Lebanese army soldiers in the Jun. 2013 clashes in Abra.
• Assir was arrested on Aug. 15, 2015 at Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport, where he was trying to flee the country in disguise.