Depositor Edgar Aouad scaling a counter at an AM Bank in Antelias, July 17, 2023. (Screenshot)
BEIRUT — A depositor, accompanied by his 13-year-old son, managed to recover his $15,000 deposit on Monday morning after holding up an AM Bank branch in Antelias, the Cry of the Depositors collective confirmed to L'Orient-Le Jour.
In a video posted on the collective's social networks, the depositor, Edgar Aouad, can be seen shouting and gesturing, with a box of matches in his hand, before climbing onto one of the counters.
A woman, who does not appear on camera, can also be heard urging him to go to the cashier and take his money.
A spokesperson for the Cry of the Depositors collective, who requested anonymity, told L'Orient-Le Jour that Aouad, aged around forty, poured petrol into the bank premises and threatened to set it on fire.
The bank workers then handed him over his money, after which he left, the spokesperson continued. "We have issued warnings on several occasions. There will be other [bank] holdups. We can't live on $300 a month," the member of the Cry of the Depositors said, referring to a heavily criticized new bank restriction.
An Internal Security Forces representative did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Under an older version of Banque du Liban's Circular No. 158, select depositors are allowed to withdraw $400 "fresh" every month from their "lollar" accounts and the equivalent amount in Lebanese lira at a rate of LL15,000 to the greenback.
However, this was amended in early June to allow newcomers to withdraw only $300 a month.
Last Monday, a depositor managed to obtain his entire savings of $6,500 after staging a short sit-in at the downtown Beirut branch of Banque Misr Liban and threatening bank employees with a bottle containing an unidentified liquid.
And in June, angry protesters ransacked four banks in Sin al-Fil, following a call from the Cry of the Depositors.
The same group burnt and ransacked several banks in Beirut's Badaro neighborhood, home to several bank branches, in February. Angry demonstrators also vandalized banks in Tripoli that same day.
Banks have been imposing illegal restrictions on their customers since Lebanon's economic crisis began in 2019, limiting withdrawals and transfers. In recent months, the country has seen a wave of bank holdups in which depositors, sometimes armed, have broken into branches to claim their own funds.