Lebanese lawmaker demands trapped bank savings

By KAREEM CHEHAYEB
Associated Press

BEIRUT (AP) — A Lebanese member of Parliament has entered a bank branch near Beirut demanding some of her trapped savings to cover medical expenses. Lawmaker Cynthia Zarazir on Wednesday entered a Byblos Bank branch with her lawyer seeking the cash, the latest in the country’s surge of depositors storming banks to demand their locked savings. Lebanon’s cash-strapped banks have imposed informal limits on withdrawals since late 2019. Since then, three-quarters of the population has plunged into poverty, and the Lebanese pound has lost some 90% of its value against the dollar. Elsewhere, dozens of protesters scuffled with police at the Central Bank’s headquarters in Beirut, while a man fired shots into the glass facade of a bank with an assault rifle.