BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanese authorities on Wednesday released on bail a pop star-turned-militant who had spent months in jail awaiting a retrial on charges of belonging to an armed group and money laundering, judicial officials said.
Fadel Shaker had surrendered after 12 years on the run last October, giving himself up to the Lebanese military intelligence service after hiding in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ein el-Hilweh near the port city of Sidon.
Shaker had been tried in absentia in 2020, sentenced to 22 years in prison for supporting a “terrorist group” over bloody street clashes that had erupted in 2013 between Sunni militants and Lebanese army soldiers near Sidon.
According to four judicial officials, he paid 500 million Lebanese pounds ($5,500) for bail and was released on Wednesday after being questioned about an array of allegations, including being part of an armed group, funding armed groups, money laundering — and most significantly, taking part in the Sidon clashes.
The cases have not been closed so far as a probe into the allegations continues. The four officials spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
After his release, Shaker left the military facility in a suburb of Beirut, Lebanon's capital, where he was being held, and is now in a rented apartment, the officials said. Shaker and his lawyer did not respond to inquiries about his release and bail.
After he had surrendered in October, the initial sentence was dropped and Shaker was put on retrial in January, under Lebanese law. During the proceedings, he testified that he had been close to Sunni Muslim cleric Ahmed al-Assir and that he had received threats from the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group and supporters of ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad.
In 2017, al-Assir was convicted and sentenced to death for his role in the 2013 clashes that killed 18 soldiers, following a trial that lasted two years. The cleric is still on death row.
During his January testimony, Shaker said he had grown distant from al-Assir, and that they had faced disagreements prior to the 2013 clashes. He repeatedly denied taking part in the clashes near Sidon.
However, a video uploaded to YouTube during the 2013 clashes, shows a bearded Shaker calling his enemies pigs and dogs and taunting the military, saying “we have two rotting corpses that we snatched from you yesterday,” referring to two pro-Hezbollah fighters who were killed in the clashes.
The clashes deepened sectarian tensions between Sunni and Shiite Muslims in Lebanon, their internal political differences inflamed by a raging civil war next door in Syria, where Hezbollah fighters backed Assad's forces against mostly Sunni rebel and militant groups.
Years earlier, Shaker had reached stardom across the Arab world with a smash 2002 hit. His large fanbase was shocked when he showed up in rallies alongside al-Assir and he later said he gave up singing to become close to God.
Still, he released several songs as a fugitive, one together with his son Mohammed last July that went viral across the Arab world.
FILE - Lebanese pop idol Fadel Shaker delivers a sermon in support of Syrian rebel fighters and Syrian refugees after the Friday prayer, Feb. 8, 2013, in Beirut. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein, File)
HOUSTON (AP) — A Mexican national fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Houston had no criminal convictions during his decades living in the U.S. and was driving a crew to a homebuilding site when he was killed, his family and a Texas congresswoman said Wednesday.
Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was working toward securing legal status in the U.S. and knew what to do if stopped by ICE, his son said.
Ronaldo Salgado said his father may have been scared that the people in unmarked vehicles were coming to steal the tools he used for 35 years to build homes, from sunrise to sunset, so he could send his three American sons to college.
“He did not deserve to die. He did not deserve to be reduced to a headline of Mexican man shot and killed by ICE. He deserved to live a quiet life as Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a husband, a father and a job creator for dozens of men who also wanted the American dream," Salgado said during a news conference.
The shooting happened Tuesday in Magnolia Park, a neighborhood that has been a hub for Houston's Mexican American community for a century.
Salgado Araujo was shot after he ignored commands and attempted to ram an officer who fired his weapon in self-defense, the Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday in a statement. ICE officers were targeting him because he was living in the country without legal permission, according to the department, which oversees ICE. The man’s car struck an ICE vehicle, the department added.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia said Salgado Araujo had no criminal convictions.
Houston firefighters said he was shot in the abdomen. He died at a hospital.
Three other men appeared to be detained as Salgado Araujo lay moaning on the ground, according to his son, who said one of them was his uncle and that no one has heard from any of them since.
Federal officials have not released video or images of the shooting or the alleged damage to the vehicles. Salgado on Tuesday joined civil rights groups and Democratic officials in urging federal authorities to release all the footage and other information it has on the shooting.
In several other shootings involving federal officers, initial descriptions by immigration officials have sometimes been contradicted later by video evidence.
A video shot by bystander Juliet Martinez shows a black vehicle angled towards a white van, their doors wide open. A bleeding and handcuffed man groans loudly on the ground and his leg shakes. Other federal officers stand over at least three other handcuffed men.
The federal crackdown has created a country where it is “open season on Latinos” by officers who think they can “shoot and explain later,” League of United Latin American Citizens President Roman Palomares said during the news conference.
The way ICE has handled previous investigations shows they have not earned the trust of taking their statements as facts without evidence like video to back it up, he said.
“Your pattern has been one of inaccuracies of prejudicial leaks before the facts are known, of twisting the narrative to fit your version of events,” Palomares said.
The league offered a $5,000 reward for information and videos from witnesses as it calls for an independent investigation. Other civil rights leaders begged anyone with videos to not turn them over to ICE, which they said could destroy them.
Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare said Salgado Araujo’s family and the community deserve the truth but federal authorities are exclusively handling the investigation at this time.
Representatives of ICE and DHS have not responded to repeated requests for comment Wednesday.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin took over the department in March with the aim of keeping it away from the controversies that had marked the tenure of his predecessor, Kristi Noem.
In the months after two fatal shootings in Minnesota sparked a fierce backlash, the number of immigration arrests across the country fell and ICE appeared to recalibrate its tactics. But in late June, arrests around the country surged to 10,000 over a five-day period, fueled in part by massive Congressional funding.
The shooting was at least the eighth death resulting from an encounter with federal immigration officers since the start of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
Ronaldo Salgado said his mother was told something bad had happened to his dad around 7 a.m. Tuesday. After frantically looking for him at his job site and finding his empty van, he saw a video.
“I recognized him, not from his appearance but from his voice crying for help as he lay on the street," Salgado said.
Salgado Araujo met his wife as a teenager in Mexico. They came to America and built their own home in Houston with help from friends and family who worked on his crew. His wife made his lunch before he left for the day and had a hearty meal ready when he came home. He would listen to music and pet his dog on his porch, Salgado said.
“After nearly 35 years of working to give us the American dream, he made the choice to begin the process of obtaining his American dream through a work permit,” Salgado said. “We dotted every I, crossed every T, filled every document, attended every appointment. He was close to obtaining his legal status.”
Salgado Araujo had biometric scan and fingerprints done earlier this year, his son said, and had carefully studied what to do if ICE pulled him over. If he was speeding away, it was probably because he feared having his tools stolen, his son said.
“Had my father seen an emblem of ICE or an emblem that says anything about a law enforcement agency, my father would have complied,” his son said.
Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum said she is considering legal measures or may ask the United Nations to step in to stop the violence against Mexicans in the United States.
“There has been another tragic death of one of our compatriots in the United States due to detention issues, even though their only ‘offense’ is not yet having proper documentation,” Sheinbaum said.
Texas’ largest city has experienced heightened enforcement operations since the crackdown began last year, and not without public backlash. The Houston City Council voted to pass an ordinance limiting ICE cooperation but reversed course after Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, threatened to cut more than $100 million in state funding for public safety.
Brook reported from New Orleans and Collins from Columbia, South Carolina. Associated Press reporters Hallie Golden in Seattle; Gisela Salomon in Miami; Rebecca Santana in Washington, D.C.; and Ryan J. Foley in Omaha contributed.
Lorenzo Salgado Jr., son of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, holds a family photograph during a news conference Wednesday, July 8, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
Police work on Canal Street in Houston, Tuesday, July 7, 2026, after a shooting. (Jacob Lujan/Houston Chronicle via AP)
Ronaldo Salgado, son of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, speaks during a news conference Wednesday, July 8, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
Ronaldo Salgado and Lorenzo Jr., sons of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, hold a photograph of their father during a news conference Wednesday, July 8, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
Ronaldo Salgado, son of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, wipes away tears while speaking during a news conference Wednesday, July 8, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
