Protesters gathered in front of Blom Bank chairman Saad Azhari’s house in Beirut on Wednesday evening.
The protest comes after the bank refused to drop charges against two activists who accompanied a female depositor who held bank employees at gunpoint earlier that day to retrieve some of her savings.
Reportedly, bullets were fired at the protest by unidentified armed individuals who some believed to be Azhari’s guards.
The management of Blom Bank denied that Azhari has bodyguards in front of his home, whether armed or not.
The protesters demanded the immediate release of the two activists.
There were two hostage situations taking place in Lebanese banks on Wednesday. The first was at a Blom Bank branch in Sodeco, Beirut, and the second at a bank in Aley.
The vigilantes took the banks hostage in an attempt to withdraw their own savings from the banks, which the banks have illegally restricted since the beginning of the financial crisis.
Sally Hafez, who took hostages at the Blom Bank, filmed herself while stating demands to obtain her own money “for her sister who has cancer and is dying in the hospital.”
Hafez said she recovered $13.000 of the $20.000 her family had in the bank. She added that the cost of her sister’s care amounted to $50.000.
Hafez and the two activists who accompanied her managed to escape through a window before the security forces arrived.
Related: Blom Bank Said The Raid On Its Sodexo Branch Was A “Harmful Planned Operation”
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