A former Lebanese pop star turned Islamic militant who has been on the run for nearly two years says he wants to return to his "normal, natural life" with his friends and family.
In an interview with Lebanon's LBC TV released Sunday, Fadel Shaker also denies fighting alongside Sunni militants in heavy clashes with the Lebanese military in June 2013 that left at least eighteen soldiers dead. He says he "never carried a weapon."
The interview is Shaker's first public appearance since a video uploaded to YouTube during the street fighting. In that video, he called his enemies pigs and dogs.
Shaker and more than 50 other suspected militants face charges of committing crimes against the military.
LBC said the interview was filmed at the Ein El-Hilweh camp near Sidon.
Born in 1969, Fadel Shaker is a prominent singer of Lebanese and Palestinian origins, who was for many years considered an iconic singer with a following consisting predominantly of the teenagers and young people across the Arab World, though the older generations also listened to his music during Shaker's concerts held in many Arab countries and songs played on radio and television.
His music career was interrupted when in 2011 when he allegedly denounced music on religious basis and joined the organisation led by Salafist sheikh Ahmed El-Assi and fighting against the Syrian regime in Sidon. With the Syrian crisis deepening, in 2013, the group reportedly attacked the Lebanese army killing 17 soldiers.
By AP and Ahram Online
