'Some depositors are endangering our safety,' say bank employees

BEIRUT — "Some depositors are endangering the safety of our colleagues in the branches and harming [our] dignity,” said the Federation of Syndicates of Bank Employees in Lebanon in a statement Thursday.

The federation called on authorities to take immediate security measures to protect bank employees, stating that “no casualties and blood to this day have been reported but who knows what the future holds.”

The statement comes after two hostage-takings took place almost simultaneously in Lebanon on Wednesday, the first at a Blom Bank branch in Sodeco, Beirut, and the second at a bank in Aley, southeast of the capital.

These actions were "coordinated" by associations defending the rights of depositors, lawyer and activist Rami Ollaik confirmed to L'Orient-Le Jour.

In Sodeco's Blom Bank branch Wednesday morning, Sali Hafez, filmed herself demanding her own money, reportedly "for [her] sister who has cancer and is dying in the hospital," according to a video Hafez took explaining her situation.

Meanwhile, in the early afternoon, the Association of Depositors in Lebanon announced a similar hostage situation was underway at a BankMed branch in Aley. According to the state-run National News Agency, a man was arrested in connection with the BankMed incident. NNA did not specify whether he had managed to withdraw money.

On Aug. 11, an armed customer held up employees and customers for hours at the Hamra branch of Federal Bank. He was briefly detained by the police, given $35,000 and told that he would enter into negotiations with the Federal Bank to demand that he be permitted to withdraw his account balance of $137,000. Citizens mobilized in front of the bank in solidarity.

Last January, an angry customer held dozens of employees and customers hostage at a bank in Bekaa after the bank refused to pay him his savings in dollars. The man, who eventually won his case, surrendered to the police without any casualties.