Demonstrators from the "Depositors' Cry" collective at the entrance to a bank they ransacked in Sin al-Fil, June 15, 2023. (Credit: Mohammad Yassin/L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — Angry depositors ransacked four banks in the Sin al-Fil district of Beirut's eastern suburbs on Thursday morning, at the call of the "Depositors' Cry" collective, to protest illegal banking restrictions in place since the start of Lebanon's economic crisis in 2019.
A reporter saw several dozen demonstrators vandalizing storefronts of the neighborhood's Banque Byblos, Bank Audi and two branches of Bank of Beirut.
Demonstrators in front of Bank Byblos in Sin al-Fil, June 15, 2023. (Credit: Mohammad Yassin/L'Orient Today)
The demonstration had started in downtown Beirut, not far from the al-Amin Mosque, before heading towards Sin al-Fil, where the president of the Association of Banks in Lebanon, Salim Sfeir, resides. Demonstrators shouted slogans against Sfeir.
In February, "Depositors' Cry" demonstrators ransacked banks in a similar protest in Beirut's affluent Badaro district, home to several banking establishments. Protesters also vandalized several banks in Tripoli that same day.
The front of the Bank of Beirut ransacked by activists from the "Cry of the Depositors" collective, June 15, 2023 in Sin al-Fil. (Credit: Mohammad Yassin/L'Orient Today)
Banks have imposed illegal restrictions on customers since Lebanon's economic crisis began in 2019, limiting withdrawals and transfers. The past year has seen a wave of bank holdups in which depositors, sometimes armed, burst into branches to demand their own blocked funds.
