The Lebanese singer and Salafist Fadl Shaker. Photo taken from his X account.
BEIRUT — Lebanese singer turned Salafist Fadl Shaker turned himself in to authorities, the state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported Saturday. In 2020, he had been sentenced in absentia to 22 years in prison for his role in clashes against the Lebanese Army.
Shaker surrendered to army intelligence at the entrance of the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain al-Hilweh, near Saida, where he had been hiding for several years.
In a statement released Sunday morning, the Lebanese Army confirmed the surrender of the artist Fadl Abdel Rahman Chamandar, known by his stage name "Shaker."
"On Friday evening, following a series of contacts between the Army and the concerned parties, the suspect turned himself in to an Intelligence Directorate patrol at the entrance of Ain al-Hilweh camp in Saida," the statement read.
The army noted that the arrest is related to the 2013 Abra clashes in eastern Saida. "An investigation has been opened by the competent judiciary," the statement concluded.
His decision reportedly came after months of pressure and threats against him inside the camp, tied to his return to music and the release of his latest album, according to several local media outlets.
In 2013, Shaker joined Sheikh Ahmad Assir and other armed Salafists in fighting against the army in Abra, near Saida. The clashes killed 18 soldiers and 11 gunmen. Assir, arrested in 2015, was later sentenced to death, while Shaker received 22 years in prison in 2020 for supplying weapons and ammunition to Assir.
Shaker, once a loved artist throughout the Arab world, has repeatedly insisted on his innocence. In a July 10 statement, he claimed the charges against him “were fabricated from scratch” and stemmed from “political settling of scores.”
The singer ended his music career in 2011 at the start of the uprising in Syria, before aligning himself with Assir’s movement. He attempted a musical comeback in 2017 and more recently released a new album.
Following the fall of Bashar al-Assad on Dec. 8, Shaker released a song dedicated to Damascus, where interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa’s Islamist-led government took power. In April, Syria’s artists' syndicate awarded him an honorary membership, citing his “remarkable artistic career” and his “humanitarian commitment to the cause of the Syrian people.”
