Protests ahead of parliament's joint capital control session

Activists and depositors gathered Tuesday in front of the Parliament to protest a capital control law ahead of a joint parliamentary session that will discuss it.

The so-called Change MPs refused in a press conference the capital control law. Other MPs said it was unacceptable as well, as they considered it to be unfair to the depositors.

The Parliamentary committees of Finance and Budget, Administration and Justice, National Economy, and Trade and Industry convened Tuesday to discuss the law.

The adoption of a capital control law is one of the reforms requested by the International Monetary Fund to financially help crisis-hit Lebanon.

Kataeb bloc MP Nadim Gemayel said the government doesn't have a comprehensive plan for economic recovery. "This is the main problem," he added, as he complained that Cabinet is sending draft laws to the Parliament "one by one."

Since October 2019, banks have been imposing informal capital controls, barring depositors from reaching into their dollar accounts, as well as stopping transfers, amid a severe financial crisis.

Earlier this month, an armed depositor had taken up to 10 people hostage in a Federal Bank branch at gunpoint in Hamra while demanding funds from his locked savings account for his father’s medical bills.