An cleric who was once Lebanon’s most-wanted fugitive was sentenced to death yesterday before a military court after being found guilty of terrorism, a judiciary source said. Arrested in 2015, Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir was tried along with 38 others accused of killing Lebanese soldiers in the southern city of Sidon in 2013.
The court also sentenced to death two other defendants and five others who remain at large, including the cleric’s brother. Capital punishment is legal in Lebanon, but there has been an effective moratorium in place since 2004, without any executions carried out despite judgements to that effect. Singer-turned-fundamentalist Fadel Shaker, who was tried in absentia, was sentenced to 15 years in prison, while the other 30 defendants were handed life sentences.
Sheikh Ahmed al-Assir
