(BEIRUT, LEBANON) — Lebanese authorities arrested Salafist Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir at the Rafik Hariri International Airport on Saturday while he attempted to flee to Nigeria.
Ahmad al-Assir was attempting to travel to Nigeria via Cairo with a fake Palestinian passport, according to officials at the airport’s General Security division.
Airport officials said al-Assir was arrested shortly after boarding the plane with a valid Nigerian visa. Two other individuals were reportedly accompanying him using forged passports.
According to the Beirut-based newspaper The Daily Star, al-Assir changed his appearance by removing his beard and “doing a number of plastic surgeries.”
Al-Assir, widely known as an anti-Hezbollah cleric, was holding a passport in the name of Rami Abdul Rahman Taleb, according to the Lebanese National News Agency.
A white Mercedes which reportedly transported al-Assir to the airport has been seized, and its driver was arrested, according to officials.
Media reports speculated that al-Assir may have been hiding in the Ain al-Hilwe refugee camp near Sidon. Al-Assir has been on the run since June 2013 after his armed supporters clashed with the Lebanese army and killed 18 soldiers.
In 2014, a military court recommended prosecutors seek death sentences for al-Assir and 53 others, including former singer Fadel Shaker.
Since his arrest, the wife of al-Assir staged a protest in Sidon near the Bahaa Eddine mosque, calling on the release of her husband hours after his arrest.
“I will keep blocking the road until my husband is freed,” she said, according to Sawt Lebnan, VDL 100.5 radio.
Security officials also arrested al-Assir supporter Ahmed Abdul Majid, a Palestinian living in Sidon.