Raider takes hostages to access own savings

Lebanese leap to the defence of cafe owner who held up bank in effort to withdraw his money

‘Abdallah managed to do what nobody could do in all of Lebanon. He didn’t steal the money. It was his’

‘Deliberate depression is orchestrated by country’s elite that has captured the state and lives off its economic rents’

A MAN who held up a bank to withdraw his own money has been described as a hero by Lebanese furious at being prevented from accessing their savings amid a financial collapse.

Abdallah Assaii is accused of holding seven staff hostage at a bank in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley last week, dousing them in petrol and threatening to set them alight unless they gave him $50,000 (£37,000) from his account.

Lebanese banks introduced informal capital controls to restrict withdrawals in late 2019 to prevent bank runs. Since then, depositors with US dollar accounts have only been able to withdraw small amounts in Lebanese pounds at an exchange rate far below market value.

With 80 per cent of the population without at least one essential service such as public utilities or health care, many Lebanese excused Mr Assaii, with members of his community saying the 37-year-old needed money to pay for stock at his cafe after a robbery.

“Abdallah managed to do what nobody could do in all of Lebanon,” an NGO worker from Mr Assaii’s home town said. “He didn’t steal the money. It was his.” Many Lebanese say the country’s leaders are to blame for the worsening economic situation.

“If people want their rights they should go to the banks’ main offices and to politicians. They are behind what’s happening,” one of the staff taken hostage by Mr Assaii said.

That view is shared by the World Bank, which yesterday excoriated Lebanon’s leadership for failing to address the meltdown for over two years.

“Lebanon’s deliberate depression is orchestrated by the country’s elite that has long captured the state and lived off its economic rents,” the global lender said. “It has come to threaten the country’s long-term stability and social peace.” Since the end of the civil war in the 1990s, Lebanon’s economy has been based on unsustainably high debt, with the country attracting foreign capital by offering high interest rates, funded by more borrowing.

The World Bank said the crisis had cut the country’s gross domestic product by nearly 60 per cent since 2019.

Government revenues collapsed by almost half in 2021 to reach 6.6 per cent of GDP, the lowest ratio globally after Somalia and Yemen, the bank said.

“Deliberate denial during deliberate depression is creating long-lasting scars on the economy and society,” said Saroj Kumar Jha, the World Bank’s regional director. Mr Assaii reportedly apologised to the staff he took hostage after he surrendered to police.

While he was arrested, in the confusion he was reportedly able to pass the money to his wife, who remains at large.

No one was seriously injured but lawyers for Mr Assaii and the bank disagree on the level of violence he used.

His family and friends deny he physically assaulted staff or threatened to kill them, describing instead a man with no criminal record, driven to desperation by debt and unfair banking practices.

Mr Assaii has started a hunger strike, according to his family.