Security forces in front of a BLOM Bank branch that was held up in September (Credit: Mohammad Yassin/L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — A fight broke out in front of BLOM Bank’s main branch in the Verdun neighborhood of Beirut Wednesday between a Lebanese soldier and MP Nabil Badr's bodyguards, according to local media and confirmed to L'Orient Today by a spokesperson for the bank.
اشكال امام بنك لبنان والمهجر الفرع الرئيسي في بيروت pic.twitter.com/Q81l7mTFOm
— جمعية المودعين اللبنانيين (@Lebdepositors) September 28, 2022
A BLOM bank spokesperson told L’Orient Today that while MP Nabil Badr was inside the bank with his bodyguards, an army intelligence officer arrived on a motorcycle and tried to park in front of the bank before an argument broke out between him and Badr's bodyguards. The argument reportedly escalated into a fight. The Lebanese Army was called into the scene to control the situation, local media reported.
The scuffle “happened outside the bank’s premises and the bank has nothing to do with it,” the BLOM spokesperson said, adding that the fight was “minor and was exaggerated by the media.”
Earlier in September, at least seven banks were held up by depositors attempting to take their own funds. Among the banks that were held up was BLOM bank's branch in the Tariq al-Jadideh neighborhood of Beirut by depositor Abed Soubra, who was later escorted out of the bank with the assistance of Nabil Badr.
In a message posted on Facebook and addressed to caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and the public prosecutor at the Court of Cassation, Ghassan Oueidat, Badr later wrote:"If we helped Abed Soubra to get out of the bank, it is because we are convinced that he did not commit a crime or threaten anyone with a weapon. He even left the door of the bank open."
Since the economic crisis began unfurling in 2019, banks have imposed illegal restrictions that are not endorsed by any law, but that Banque du Liban has indirectly validated, effectively devaluing the deposits when they are withdrawn or transferred.