The husband of Lebanese popstar Nancy Ajram, who was detained for shooting a burglar who died of 16 bullet wounds on Sunday, has been transferred to hospital.
Celebrity dentist Dr Fadi Al Hashem surprised an alleged bugler, Syrian national Mohammed Hassan Al Moussa, 30, as he broke into his family home at around dawn in the Keserwan district, north of the capital Beirut, reported the state-run National News Agency.
Security camera footage broadcast by local television network MTV allegedly shows Al Moussa, who is wearing a mask, threatening Dr Al Hashem with appears to be a gun. He told MTV that the burglar was carrying one of Ajram’s handbags and asking for money.
Dr Al Hachem complied and gave him cash from his jacket, but Al Moussa then asked: “Where is the gold? Don’t make me hurt you. Call your wife.”
Images show several other men arriving on the scene, who Dr Al Hashem says in the video are his security guards.
In the meantime, he picked up a gun and later said that he “lost his mind” when he realised that Al Moussa had entered his young daughters’ bedroom.
“I ran to him like a kamikaze. I wanted to cut him into pieces. Even if he shot me,” he told MTV.
The security footage cuts as the gun is fired.
Al Moussa died at the scene and a judicial source told MTV that the cause was 16 gunshot wounds.
MTV also reported that the gun Al Moussa had been carrying had been fake.
It remains unclear whether the other men who were present also shot Al Moussa.
"The guests were inside and before they turned on the alarm, he climbed over the fence and hid," Ajram's manager Jiji Lamara said of the intruder on Egyptian talk show Kul Youm. "Once the guests left he did what he did."
Lamara praised Al Hashem's actions, labelling it as self-defence.
“It could have been a kidnapping or murder,” Lamara said. “And like any father who is scared for his family, he had no other choice but to go down this path.”
Speaking to MTV, a worn-out looking Ajram said she was in good health and was unwilling to comment on the incident. She had a bandage on her leg.
Local newspaper L'Orient-Le Jour reported that Ajram's father said she had a nervous episode shortly after the incident.
Dr Al Hashem was detained on Sunday. An anonymous legal source said that this “does not mean that Al Hashem will be sentenced for murder” but that it was a necessary part of the investigation.
He will remain in custody until Tuesday, when he is expected to appear before an investigative judge. Monday is a public holiday in Lebanon.
The judge will then decide whether to issue an arrest warrant for Dr Al Hashem or not.
Also according to MTV, Mount Lebanon Public Prosecutor Ghada Aoun ordered Dr Al Hashem to be transferred to hospital shortly after his arrest and NNA confirmed that this was due to his “deteriorating mental health”.
Ajram, 36, is one of the best-selling music artists in the region.
Her most recent live performance was a free New Year’s Eve concert on Abu Dhabi’s Al Maryah Island
Ajram and her husband, who wed in 2008, have three daughters: Mila, 10, Ella, 8, and Lya, born in January 2019.
Lebanon hosts a high number of Syrians, most of them refugees who fled the civil war in their country.
According to the Lebanon crime and safety report issued by the US State Department in 2019, there is “moderate risk” of crime in Beirut.
