Man who robbed bank to get his own money back hailed as national hero
Lebanese here. To answer some of the questions in this thread:- No, Lebanon does not follow Islamic Banking.- No, people can't make wire transfers anymore. All bank accounts are frozen, you can't withdraw your own money. You have to beg and wait in line for weeks to be able to get a tiny amount of your account to be able to buy bread etc.- The local currency collapsed, lost more than 90% of its value. If the bank decides to give you some change (from your own money), they play money conversion tricks so that e.g. your account is down $1,000 but you get $100 only.- This person did not "rob" the bank. He tried asking the bank for money because  his father (and some people said his child as well) were in the hospital, needed medical care, and for that the hospital needed money. He had $210K in his account, but the bank kept kicking him away in previous attempts to appeal to them. He came back with a gun, and held hostages. Negotiated until they give back $35K, to his brother who was waiting outside. Then he surrendered without hurting anyone.- He is now in bad health because he's on a hunger strike after they arrested him. (In the negotiation they promised him not to arrest him, but of course they need to make an example out of him.)- Why is this all happening? Bad economic and financial policies for 40 years, rampant corruption. The economy was unproductive, but they kept the local currency subsidized, as it turns out by just spending the money that people deposited in the banks. And it's all gone now.