Gone was the long, scraggly beard of the fugitive sheikh’s heyday, replaced with a bushy moustache, thick glasses and the comb-over of a 70s actor. Ahmad al-Assir, a radical cleric whose followers battled the Lebanese army before he went into hiding two years ago, was seized at Beirut’s international airport over the weekend as he attempted to flee the country with the help of his new look and a forged passport.
Two years ago, Assir was riding a wave of popularity and notoriety. The charismatic preacher was a lonely voice speaking out against Hezbollah, the military and political organisation that dominates Lebanese affairs and has intervened to save President Bashar al-Assad’s regime from collapse in Syria.