Lebanon Judge Freezes Assets of Five Banks and Members of Their Boards

A general view shows the headquarters of the Lebanese Blom Bank in Beirut, Lebanon July 9, 2018. (Reuters)
A general view shows the headquarters of the Lebanese Blom Bank in Beirut, Lebanon July 9, 2018. (Reuters)
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Lebanon Judge Freezes Assets of Five Banks and Members of Their Boards

A general view shows the headquarters of the Lebanese Blom Bank in Beirut, Lebanon July 9, 2018. (Reuters)
A general view shows the headquarters of the Lebanese Blom Bank in Beirut, Lebanon July 9, 2018. (Reuters)

A Lebanese judge froze the assets of five top banks and members of their boards while she investigates transactions they undertook with the country's central bank, a judicial document showed on Monday.

The asset freeze against Bank of Beirut, Bank Audi, SGBL, Blom Bank and Bankmed applies to properties, vehicles and shares in companies owned by the banks or the members of their boards.

She has not charged any of the parties mentioned with any crime.

Lebanon's banks association in statement said the decision by Judge Ghada Aoun was "illegal" and would further destabilize the country's banking system, already crippled by a financial meltdown that has seen most depositors locked out of their hard currency accounts.

Raya Hassan, chairman of the board of Bankmed, declined to comment, as did Blom Bank chairman Saad Azhari and a spokesperson for Bank Audi.

Bank of Beirut and SGBL did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Aoun on Thursday issued travel bans against the heads of the boards of the five Lebanese banks as a precautionary measure while she carried out her probe, she told Reuters.



French National Detained in Tunisia on Breach of State Security Charges

Security forces in the streets of Tunisia’s capital, Tunis (AFP)
Security forces in the streets of Tunisia’s capital, Tunis (AFP)
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French National Detained in Tunisia on Breach of State Security Charges

Security forces in the streets of Tunisia’s capital, Tunis (AFP)
Security forces in the streets of Tunisia’s capital, Tunis (AFP)

 

French PhD student Victor Dupont was detained in Tunisia on breach of state security charges 12 days ago, and French authorities are trying to negotiate his release, the director of his research lab, Vincent Geisser, said.
Dupont, 27, was arrested just before midday on Oct. 19 at his home in a suburb of Tunis along with three friends visiting from France, according to one of the friends, Edouard Matalon, a Paris-based librarian.
Matalon was released the same day after questioning, according to Reuters.
“This is an attack on academic freedom,” said Geisser, director of the French Institute of Research and Study on the Arab and Islamic Worlds at Aix-Marseille University.
The Tunisian authorities were not immediately available for comment. The French ministry of foreign affairs did not reply to a request for comment.
But several Tunisian lawyers linked Dupont’s arrest to the PhD he started in 2022, and which looks at the socio-economic and life trajectories of those who took part in social movements of the 2011 revolution that toppled President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali.