When resources run out, most Lebanese society put the body. He does it without using too much violence. He knows that what he wants is his. They enter their banks with all their wealth and for the fifteenth time withdraw your savings from your dying checking accounts. They did it dozens of times but this one is different. They bring a gun, spray the branch with gas, and then take the money that looked like it didn’t exist yesterday when employees claimed it was empty-handed. They leave outside with briefcases full of bills as the town celebrates its new Robin Hood. in Lebanon, desperation forces them to take justice into their own hands, and the final battle is fought in bank branches. Sally Hafez broke into Blom bank offices in Beirut with a toy gun a few weeks ago. This prominent activist, a 28-year-old interior designer, demanded thousands of dollars in her sister’s checking account, which she had to pay for cancer treatment. She managed to break out of the bank with $13,000 and become an icon. With him was his lawyer, Rami Ollaik. Ollaik explains to this newspaper: “If a depositor dies at the door of a hospital while the bank hides his money and bankers spend it on private planes, that’s not true.” it is legitimate for them to demand their savings by force”.
“The depositors are taking the law into their own hands for their own health,” he adds, alarmed over the phone. Lebanese were unable to access their savings for three years after unofficial capital controls were imposed by the banks. this the collapse of the banking system caused most of their money to evaporate. Thousands of Lebanese have wasted their energies against bank employees who denied what was theirs. However, previously, the news of such an attack was known to the dropper. Instead, they don’t stop being now. Sally rushed to Blom on the other side of the capital, while another depositor got $30,000 back. In the same week, there were seven more attacks by angry depositors. This Tuesday alone, there have been three attacks in different parts of the country. One of them was done by a retired police officer.
“In self defense”
Ollaik is the founder of United for Lebanon Against Corruption, a group of lawyers who have been leading the fight against banks for three years. “We filed the first lawsuit against the banks, several of its executive members, as well as Riad Salameh,” says Ollaik, who has been chairman of the Central Bank of Lebanon for three decades. “We have given up on the judiciary, we see it as a judiciary” first responsible for, because they blocked every way to demand justice”, this lawyer recalls as he goes to another trial. Overcoming the court, he decided to find a new way.
Now they advise the depositors to carry out their attack and get some of their money back. They usually only help those in need for medical reasons. “Given the situation in Lebanon and the corruption situation, we agreed to support the right of self-defense as an exemption from sanctions in emergencies,” Ollaik says. Attacks, although multiple, they did not cause any injury. Some broken glass and the mess it leaves behind, the depositors just want the money. But they have already placed fear in the banks. This week some branches reopened with drastically reduced services after being closed for a few days.
Negotiations with the IMF
The economic crisis in Lebanon is over three quarters of the population poverty. Citizens are suffering without medicine, electricity and water. your local currency, Lebanese pound depreciates more than 90% however, the rates remain adjusted according to the previous change. From 1 November, the country will increase its fixed exchange rate against the dollar to 15,000 Lebanese pounds, leaving the 1500 pounds per dollar in effect since 1997. The government has been negotiating with the International Monetary Fund for months to remove the barrier. financial aid program.
The bailout will not come unless the authorities implement financial reforms such as the capital control law. “This has reached the most extreme levels of humiliation; People are angry and talk about the burning of the houses of bank owners in Lebanon and abroad,” Olliak says. “The confrontation is inevitable, even if it is bloody; the mafia that runs us has begun to devour people’s energy, they don’t care about us,” adds the lawyer for El Periódico from the Prensa Ibérica group. Armed with a dose of desperation, they have no choice but to claim what is theirs.At the doors of the banks, with a bag full of money in their hands, they momentarily regain their strength.