A desperate man robbed a bank in eastern Lebanon on Tuesday, demanding to transfer money to his son studying in Ukraine, before being arrested, while two similar incidents were taking place in other regions.
The banks had reopened at the end of September with draconian security measures after being closed for a week due to a series of robberies by customers who wanted to withdraw their frozen savings in this country hit by an unprecedented economic crisis. Ali Sahili, a retiree from the Internal Security Forces (ISF), broke into a bank in Chtaura (45 km east of Beirut), demanding to transfer money to his son, evicted from his accommodation for not paying rent, according to a report. . savings support group
He had wanted to sell a kidney to help his son
The man, in his fifties, held people hostage in the establishment, Hassan Mughnié, spokesman for the “Le cri des épargnants” association, told AFP. According to him, Ali Sahili, who has more than $24,000 in his bank account, had repeatedly pleaded with the establishment that he make a transfer to his son, so that he could pay his college tuition and rent. Speaking to a local television channel, the retired police officer said that he even tried to sell a kidney to help his son.
ISF arrested Ali Sahili after someone at the bank managed to disarm him, his brother told local media, after the retiree was unable to get his money. For three years, banks have imposed draconian restrictions, preventing customers from withdrawing their savings, especially in dollars, or making transfers abroad.
The culmination of a movement born in 2019
Since the beginning of the economic crisis in 2019, parents of Lebanese studying abroad have regularly demonstrated for the right to transfer money to their children. In Tyr, in the south of the country, a man also broke into a bank on Tuesday demanding to recover the money from him, according to “Le cri des dépouvants”. He turned himself in to law enforcement after the bank handed over his savings in Lebanese pounds, an AFP correspondent reported on the spot.
And in Tripoli in the north, Lebanon’s second largest city, a group of employees of a local power company broke into a bank to demand payment of their salaries, according to the National News Agency. Since a series of spectacular robberies on September 16, banks have taken extreme security measures, dropping customers off and registering them in an attempt to prevent such incidents from happening again.
Source: BFM TV
