Depositors protest in front of the Justice Palace on Jan. 17, 2023. (Credit: Mohammad Yassin/L'Orient Today)
The Mouttahidoun ("United" in Arabic) depositors group announced in a statement on Thursday evening that the first investigating judge in the Bekaa, in eastern Lebanon, has set a date — March 16 — to question the governor of Lebanon's central bank, members of the bank's central council, and government commissioners (current directors and former ministers of economy and finance) at the central bank.
The decision follows a criminal complaint filed on March 21 by lawyers of the collective 'The Pioneers of Justice” and the Mouttahidoun group, led by lawyer Rami Ollaik.
These two groups have accused the above-mentioned parties of several felonies including "the governor's failure to protect the national currency, mismanagement of the central bank, default and gross negligence, squandering of public funds, poor financial and banking engineering, fraudulently concealing the central bank's losses in its balance sheets, corruption deals and the Ponzi scheme," among many others, according to Thursday's statement.
The statement added that the complaint had been filed against at least 36 defendants, including Fransabank and its chairman, Credit Libanais and its chairman, as well as many other banks and their chairpersons, "and everyone whom the investigation shows as an actor, partner, accomplice or instigator."
The statement added that the first investigating judge in the Bekaa, Amani Salameh, has also set a questioning session on the same date — March 16 — for former Deputy Parliament Speaker Elie Ferzli in relation to the complaint of the plaintiff, Rami Ghandour, a member of the Depositors’ Cry group against Ferzli, who is accused "of attempted murder and intentional harm during a protest against the 'capital control'" near Parliament.
Mouttahidoun's statement also said that March 31 has been set as the date for a questioning session at the Investigation Court in Beirut, at the request of the group's lawyers, on behalf of the plaintiff Ayad al-Gharabaoui Ibrahim against Fransabank.
Last week, the Court of Cassation ruled on a technicality that favored depositors Ibrahim and his wife, Hanane Maroun al-Hajj Ibrahim, in their legal dispute with Fransabank. The case involves tens of thousands of dollars and has been highly publicized since last winter.
The ruling led the Lebanese banking sector to go on an open-ended strike, starting last Tuesday. This is not the first time that this case has pushed the Lebanon's banks to strike. Banks closed their doors for two days in March 2022, when the first decision was made by a judge against Fransabank in the same case.
In its statement on Monday evening, the Association of Banks in Lebanon called for the adoption of a law establishing formal capital controls before the banks will consider reopening.
Such a bill was approved in January by the joint parliamentary committees, but has still not been voted on in Parliament. Critics of the bill say it is too bank friendly, even though some more problematic provisions were removed by the committees.
The banking restrictions, combined with the depreciation of the Lebanese lira, have effectively vastly eroded the value of account holders deposits. While many of these depositors have gone to court in an effort to access their funds, only a few have been successful. So far, all successful lawsuits were filed in foreign courts.