Lebanese lawmaker stages bank sit-in to free trapped savings
Lebanese MP Cynthia Zarazir tells staff of the Antelias branch of Byblos Bank that she will not leave until they release trapped dollar deposits she needs to pay for surgery
Beirut – A Lebanese lawmaker entered a bank branch unarmed on Wednesday with two of her lawyers to free trapped dollar deposits she needs to pay for surgery, her lawyer said.
Cynthia Zarazir, who was elected to parliament in May polls, is the latest in a growing number of angry depositors who are forcing Lebanese lenders to unlock savings trapped under informal capital controls imposed amid an unprecedented financial crisis.
Zarazir entered her bank branch in a northern suburb of Beirut at around 9 am (0600 GMT) to demand $8,500 to pay for surgery costs not covered by her health insurance, her lawyer Fouad Debs said from inside the bank.
“We will not leave until we get the money,” Debs told AFP, nearly three hours after they entered the branch.
Several activists gathered outside the bank to support Zarazir, whose plight echos that of the many Lebanese who have been locked out of their savings by bank restrictions that have gradually tightened since the start of the financial crash in 2019.
On Tuesday, a retired diplomat and honorary consul of Ireland, Georges Siam, carried out an all-day sit-in at a bank in the suburbs of Beirut to recover his savings before eventually reaching a compromise.
Almost simultaneously, at least two other armed bank heists took place in separate branches.
They included one by a retired policeman who held up a bank in east Lebanon to demand a money transfer to his son in Ukraine to help pay for rent and university tuition.
Lebanon’s banks had closed for a week after a series of heists on September 16.
They have since reopened amid tight security.