A woman has spoken of the sad reason she robbed a bank to get her own money in Lebanon – and it’s far from an isolated case as desperate people take extreme action to get hands on their own cash.
Banks have imposed limits on citizens’ withdrawals despite how much is in their account since the start of the country’s financial crash in 2019.
Commercial lenders have effectively banned most foreign currency transactions, forcing depositors to withdraw their savings in the plummeting Lebanese pound, which has lost more than 95 per cent of its value against the US dollar on the black market.
A video last month showed two sisters holding up a bank in Beirut with a toy gun – as customers and workers screamed in fear. They are now on the run.
One of the women, ` told BBC they needed the money to pay for their other sister’s cancer treatment.
“It wasn’t an easy choice to do what I did but I’d reached a breaking point,” the 28-year-old said, according to an English translation.
Ms Hafiz said the banks were to blame.
“I apologise to all the people I frightened but how does that compare to the despair, anger and grief I feel every day, knowing my sister is dying,” she said.
A phone picture of Ms Hafiz standing on a desk inside the bank during the heist went viral online.
She was ordered to pay a fine of one million Lebanese pounds, around $1,000AUD, and hit with a six-month travel ban.
Just days before, a father-of-seven held up a Beirut bank with a gun – that he has since claimed wasn’t loaded – to demand thousands of dollars from his savings account.
Speaking while on bail, Jawad Slim told BBC he needed the money to pay for schooling for his children and believes he did not commit a crime.
“Had they given us our money, we wouldn’t have needed to do this,” he said.
At least five banks had “depositor heists” the same day.
One man believed to be in his 50s was carrying a gun and jerry can of fuel when he stormed a bank in the small city of Ghaziyeh to demand staff hand over his money.
“He emptied a jerrican of fuel on the floor,” a bank security guard told an AFP reporter.
Lebanon’s banks were forced to close for a week after the series of heists on September 16 but have since reopened amid tight security.
The month before, a man with a rifle threatening to set himself ablaze held Beirut bank workers hostage for hours, demanding access to his savings to pay hospital fees for his sick dad.
A security source told AFP a man in his forties “poured gasoline all over the bank, and closed the bank’s front door, holding employees hostage”.
His brother told journalists: “My brother has $210,000 in the bank and wants to get just $5,500 to pay hospital bills.”
George al-Hajj, who heads Lebanon’s bank employees’ union, told AFP outside the bank that a radical solution was needed.
“This is not the first such case. Similar incidents keep happening. We need a radical solution,” he said.
“Depositors want their money, and unfortunately their anger explodes in the face of bank employees because they cannot reach the management.”
In a number of cases, the alleged criminals have handed themselves in after the bank agreed to give them a portion of their money, and a crowd of supporters often gather out the front to cheer or chant.
Lebanese MP storms bank
A Lebanese politician entered a bank branch, accompanied by lawyers, and freed more than $US8000 ($12,000) in trapped dollar deposits on Wednesday to pay for surgery.
Cynthia Zarazir, who was elected to parliament in May, unarmed but with legal cover, entered her bank branch in a northern suburb of Beirut at around 9am local time to demand the money, her lawyer Fouad Debs said.
Mr Debs said the money was to pay for surgery costs not covered by her health insurance.
She exited hours later after the bank paid her the sum in cash, Mr Debs and the official National News Agency said.
Several activists had gathered outside the bank to support Ms Zarazir.
Also on Wednesday, a retired member of Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces stormed a bank in Beirut’s southern suburbs to demand access to $US48,000 ($74,000) in savings as well as 270 million Lebanese pounds from his pension. He was unarmed.
“After negotiations with the bank’s management, he managed to get all his Lebanese pound deposits and $US3,000 ($4500)” in trapped dollar savings, said Ibrahim Abdullah, a spokesman for the Depositors Union advocacy group.
Meanwhile, dozens of protesters gathered outside the central bank headquarters in Beirut to demand access to their money, amid a heavy troop deployment.
“We came to claim our rights,” said protester Houssam Machmouchi, 42. “We are not beggars, we just want our money.”
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 eastern Lebanon to demand a money transfer to his son in Ukraine to help pay for rent and university tuition.
– with AFP
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