Lebanese woman who stole own savings for sister ‘not a crook’

ON THE run from authorities after forcing a bank to release her family savings at gunpoint to treat her cancerstricken sister, 28-year-old Lebanese interior designer Sali Hafiz insists she is not a criminal.

“We are in the country of mafias. If you are not a wolf, the wolves will eat you,” she said, standing on a dirt track somewhere in Lebanon’s rugged eastern Bekaa valley where she has since been in hiding.

Hafiz held up a Beirut branch of Blom Bank last week, taking by force some $13 000 (about R230 000) in savings in her sister’s account frozen by capital controls that were imposed overnight by commercial banks in 2019 but never made legal via legislation.

Dramatic footage of the incident, in which she cocks what later turned out to be a toy gun and stands atop a desk bossing around employees who hand her wads of cash, turned her into an instant folk hero in a country where hundreds of thousands of people are locked out of their savings.

A growing number are taking matters into their own hands, exasperated by a three-year financial implosion that authorities have left to fester, leading the World Bank to describe it as “orchestrated by the country’s elite”.

Hafiz was the first of at least seven savers who held up banks last week, prompting banks to shut their doors citing security concerns, and call for security support from the government.

George Haj of the bank employees syndicate said the hold-ups were misguiding anger that should be directed at the Lebanese state, which was most to blame for the crisis, and noted some 6 000 bank employees had lost their jobs since it began. Authorities have condemned the hold-ups and say they are preparing a security plan for banks.

But depositors argue that bank owners and shareholders have enriched themselves by getting high interest payments for lending the government depositors’ money and are prioritising the banks over people rather than enacting an IMF rescue plan. The government says it is working hard to implement IMF reforms and aims to secure a $3 billion bailout this year.

When her sister began losing hope she would be able to afford costly treatment to help regain mobility and speech impaired by brain cancer, and the bank declined to provide the savings, Hafiz said she decided to act.

Blom Bank said the branch had been co-operative with her request for funds but asked for documentation as they did for all customers requesting humanitarian exceptions to the informal controls. Hafiz then returned two days later with a toy gun she had seen her nephews playing with, and a small amount of fuel that she mixed with water and spilled on to an employee.

She managed to get $13 000 of a total $20 000 – enough to cover travel expenses for her sister and about a month of treatment – and made sure to sign a receipt so she would not be accused of theft. To aid her escape, Hafiz posted on Facebook that she was on her way to Istanbul.