A bank depositor gets arrested after being promised a fraction of his money

42-year-old Bassam al-Sheikh Hussein entered Thursday the Federal Bank in Beirut’s bustling Hamra district with a shotgun and a canister of gasoline and threatened to set himself on fire unless he was allowed to withdraw his own money . Hussein had $210,000 trapped in Federal Bank and had been struggling to withdraw his money to pay his father’s medical bills and other expenses, according to the family and others . He had sold his house and his parents’ house, his mother said on TV, and deposited all the money at the bank.

After long negotiations with the bank he agreed to accept $35, 000 , a fraction of his deposit to pay his brother

But instead of being paid his $35, 000, a judge ordered his arrest

His family was outraged and blocked the Ouzai road in protest against the judge’s decision to arrest him

Judge Ghassan Khoury ordered his arrest , after he was promised during negotiations while he was still inside the bank that he would not be arrested.

“This is our money, it is our right,” his wife said. “They stole our money, Bassam is not a thief, the banks are.” 

Hussein’s drama is the latest painful episode in Lebanon’s economic free-fall, now in its third year. The country’s banks since 2019 have slapped strict limits on withdrawals of foreign currency assets, tying up the savings of millions of people.

Bassam was hailed as a hero by many who gathered to support him outside the bank. His photo circulated on social media with a phrase he said to the cheering bystanders when he turned himself in “Take your right with your own hands, these are lying bastards.”

Commenting on his arrest one of the protesters told Ya Libnan

” This whole country is run by a mafia The Lebanese mafia is being protected by a militia, it is unlike any other well-known mafia and has an exceptional structure. Look how the politicians keep claiming that the deposits are sacred and look how they all band together in the end against the depositors . All these politicians and bankers should be hanged ”