Free Patriotic Movement official media office announced in a statement that they will be pressing charges against the Lebanese Middle East Airlines for only accepting ticket payments in dollars instead of the Lebanese Pounds.
“After Middle East Airlines announced that, as of Monday, all airlines operating in Lebanon, including Middle East Airlines, will accept payment only in US dollars, the leader of the Free Patriotic Movement, MP Gebran Bassil, will be pressing charges.”
The statement continued: “MP Bassil asked anti-corruption expect lawyer Wadih Aqel to provide judicial notice to the Public Prosecution tomorrow, Monday, February 17th, against MEA for violating the laws and preventing Lebanese people from paying with the currency in hand, which is considered the least of their rights.”
FPM insisted that they were one of the first to call on the “prevention of monopolism that has been putting Lebanese citizens at the mercy of companies controlling the citizens without any deterrent.”
The political party called on the Chairman of the MEA Board, Mohamed Al-Hout, to back away from this decision, as refusing to accept the national currency constitutes a criminal offense. It contradicts the text contained in the law Budget 2020, which requires companies to deal with the national currency.
The Free Patriotic Movement, founded by the current Lebanese President Michel Aoun, is a Lebanese political party, led by his son-in-law Gebran Bassil.
“For a long time, I have been demanding to reduce the price of MEA trickers but I have not gotten any response yet, this is called monopolizing,” Bassil said in a tweet.
“Today, after refusing payments in anything but dollars, this is called a violation of laws and I demand the movement [FPM] to move with the notice. We did not receive a response about money transfers abroad from the Central Bank governor. The bank is in favor of the state and not the opposite way around.”