
A demonstrator and a policeman in front of the head of the ABL's residence in Horch Tabet, Feb. 16, 2023. (Credit: Mohammad Yassin)
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Protesters attacked banks and blocked roads across Lebanon as the lira fell to a new record low on the parallel market yesterday. In the just two days since the lira fell to LL70,000 to the dollar on the parallel market, the local currency dropped an additional LL10,000, plummeting past LL80,000 to the greenback and causing prices to spike. Amid continued currency volatility, Lebanon’s caretaker economy minister cleared the way for a controversial measure allowing supermarkets to display their prices in dollars. The new pricing mechanism is expected to be in effect as of next Wednesday, union of supermarket owners head Nabil Fahed told L'Orient Today. Meanwhile, depositors’ rights group, The Depositors’ Cry, claimed credit for setting fire to branches of Fransabank, Bank Audi, Creditbank, Byblos Bank, BBAC and Banque Libano-Française in Beirut’s Badaro neighborhood. Members of the same group also held a sit-in in Horsh Tabet, a suburb of Beirut, outside the home of Selim Sfeir, the head of the Association of Banks in Lebanon (ABL). Banks have been on strike since last Tuesday, demanding as a condition for reopening that Parliament pass a capital control law and decrying the overturn of an appeal allowing the resumption of proceedings by depositors insisting on their funds in dollars from Fransabank. The financial institutions had been operating under security restrictions for months after a series of holdups by depositors attempting to forcibly retrieve their own foreign currency funds, which have largely been frozen since 2019 by informal capital control measures. Banks also came under fire earlier this week, with a series of charges and summons filed by Mount Lebanon Public Prosecutor Ghada Aoun.
The Beirut Court of Appeal appointed a new lead in a probe into purported corruption by Banque du Liban chief Riad Salameh. The Court of Appeal Attorney General Raja Hamouche — the highest ranking among the attorneys general — replaced the previous prosecutor assigned to the case, who had recused himself last June claiming the probe fell outside his jurisdiction. Hamouche will take over from preliminary investigations conducted by Court of Cassation Attorney General Jean Tannous, compiling evidence against Forry Associates Ltd. — a brokerage company owned by Salameh’s brother Raja thought to have covertly siphoned commissions from the sale of BDL financial securities. Last Friday, Salameh once again refuted allegations of wrongdoing, claiming that “not a single dollar of BDL funds was paid to Forry Associates Ltd.” In addition to the domestic cases, Salameh is being investigated in at least five European countries and is expected to be questioned this month by a delegation of European investigators returning to Beirut to continue their probe into the central bank chief.
Deadly clashes between the Lebanese Army and alleged drug traffickers in the Bekaa Valley killed three soldiers and three suspects. “The army is at the forefront of the struggle to defend the country,” caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said after the army’s statement on the raid in Haour Taala which, according to an army spokesperson contacted by L’Orient Today, targeted alleged drug traffickers. An army raid targeting the same area resulted in the arrest of 10 suspects and the death of one person in October. In June, a Lebanese Army soldier died amid a series of raids in the Bekaa, some of which escalated into armed clashes, in a months-long manhunt for a fugitive drug trafficker. Drug trafficking is “more dangerous than terrorism," Lebanese Army commander-in-chief Gen. Joseph Aoun said in January, after several soldiers were injured during a raid against suspected drug traffickers in Beirut’s southern suburbs. Drug trafficking from Lebanon sparked tensions with the country’s regional neighbors, most notably resulting in Saudi Arabia’s 2021 ban on Lebanese agricultural exports after the discovery of captagon, an illicit stimulant, smuggled in a shipment of pomegranates.
No candidates are left to bid on a Telecoms Ministry tender to handle Lebanon’s postal services, a Central Inspection source told L’Orient Today. Partnership with Lebanese authorities is “not interesting or secure enough,” the source surmised, as the two candidates which had announced their application to the tender backed out. LibanPost, which currently handles postal services in the country and was one of the two candidates, withdrew from the tender, according to a company source citing a management email. Having reached the tender deadline with no applicants, the ministry has only two options: propose the renewal of LibanPost's contract or launch another tender, which could take several months.
In case you missed it, here’s our must-read article from yesterday: “‘Embedded in our DNA’ — How Lebanon's traumas feel to those thousands of miles away”
Compiled by Abbas Mahfouz.