Salafi jihadist Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir. (Credit: NNA)
Salafist Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir, who has been detained in Lebanon since 2015 and is serving a life sentence, called on the Lebanese authorities to close the case of the Islamists and to build good neighborly relations with the Syrian population, a few days after the fall of the Bashar al-Assad government on Dec. 8 and the control of the Syrian capital by the rebels, led by the leader of the Islamist group Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), Abu Mohammad al-Jolani.
In the wake of this, supporters of the sheikh organized a sit-in on Friday in Abra, in the suburbs of the city of Saida in south Lebanon, to demand his release and that of the Islamists, demanding the closure of the case.
"Enough injustice!" Ahmad al-Assir said in a short video published Thursday by Al Jazeera, calling on the Lebanese authorities "to lift the injustice against any victim," particularly against "the Islamists or those considered Islamists who are the object of a war of elimination." And for good reason, he specified, "the majority of the cases of Islamists or those considered as such are linked to the events in Syria."
"This case must be closed completely and definitively," insisted the sheikh.
Sheikh Assir was sentenced on Aug. 21, 2021 by the military court to twenty years of hard labor for fighting the Lebanese army in Bhanine in North Lebanon in 2014. A death sentence had already been handed down in 2017 against the Sunni preacher, arrested for the clashes that took place in June 2013 in Abra between Islamists he led and the Lebanese army. 18 soldiers and 11 militiamen were killed in these fights. His companions were sentenced to ten years of hard labor.
Assir, who was on the run, was arrested at Beirut airport on Aug. 15, 2015. Having changed his physical appearance, he was almost unrecognizable at the time. He was carrying a fake passport and was trying to flee to Egypt. His relatives and other Islamist detainees regularly demonstrate to demand an amnesty.
Welcoming "the end of injustice against the Syrian people," Assir also called on Lebanese officials to ensure the establishment of good neighborly relations with Syria. "We ask Lebanese officials to quickly ensure the establishment of the best possible relations with the Syrian population, based on honesty, fairness and good neighborly relations."
The preacher also asked the Lebanese authorities to look after the interests of Lebanon and to focus on living together.
"The war and the events of 2015, up to today, push us all to rethink the interest of our country, hence the need to identify the obstacles that hinder the proper implementation of the slogans advocating coexistence," he stated, hoping by the same token that "the population of Gaza will finally be delivered."
Supporters sit-in in Abra
Dozens of Assir's supporters and the families of those arrested in the Abra clashes held a protest march in front of the Bilal bin Rabah mosque in the town after Friday Muslim prayers, calling for the release of the Salafi sheikh and the Islamist detainees, and the closure of the Abra incident case.
Brandishing banners and photos of the sheikh, chanting slogans and songs, the protesters marched through the streets, surrounded by a security force set up by the Lebanese army.
In front of the mosque where they gave speeches, the demonstrators accused Hezbollah, particularly one of its leaders, Wafic Safa, and the former dissident MP of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), Shamel Roukoz, of "getting involved in the events of Abra to harm Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir and his companions."