The Beirut Criminal Court has acquitted Lebanese singer Fadel Shaker and cleric Ahmad al-Assir in a case linked to the attempted killing of a local official from the Hezbollah-affiliated “Resistance Brigades” in the southern city of Sidon, in a ruling that revisits one of Lebanon’s most sensitive security files stemming from the aftermath of the 2013 Abra clashes.

The ruling was issued by majority on Wednesday by a panel headed by Judge Bilal Dandawi, with counsellors Sarah Barish and Nadim al-Nashif sitting as members of the court.

The case concerns the attempted killing of Hilal Hammoud, a Sidon-based official linked to the “Resistance Brigades,” a civilian network affiliated with Hezbollah, during a period of heightened tensions in the coastal city.

The court ordered the acquittal and release of both Shaker and al-Assir, unless they are being held in connection with other judicial proceedings.

In the same ruling, the court convicted Fadi Beiruty, Bilal al-Halabi, and Hadi al-Qawas, sentencing them to time already served in detention and ordering the confiscation of weapons. Abdel Nasser Hnayniyeh was also acquitted.

Following the verdict, Fadl Shaker’s lawyer, Dr. Amata Mubarak, submitted a new request for his immediate release after receiving the court’s decision from the registry.

She formally requested his release, offering guarantees that he would not travel and would appear before the military court in future hearings.

The request comes ahead of the next scheduled session in the long-running Abra events case, set for Tuesday, May 26, 2026, which remains a separate judicial file involving clashes between the Lebanese army and Islamist militants in Sidon’s Abra district in 2013.

Shaker and al-Assir have both been at the centre of legal proceedings linked to those events, which marked one of the most violent confrontations in the city in recent decades and had far-reaching political and security repercussions across Lebanon.