Lebanese Parliament Fails to Elect a President
According to the National, “A Lebanese court handed a man known as the ‘Captagon King’ a seven-year sentence with hard labour on Thursday for producing and trafficking the illegal drug, a judicial source told AFP. This is the first time a major drug baron has been convicted in a Captagon case in Lebanon.” [The National]

Lebanese Prosecutor Orders Security Forces to Bring Lebanese Actress in for Questioning in Connection with Probe of BDL Governor
According to Reuters, “A Lebanese prosecutor said on Thursday she had ordered security forces to bring in for questioning a Lebanese actress for whom central bank chief Riad Salameh was suspected of buying luxury property using ill-gotten gains.” [Reuters]

‘Captagon King’ Sentenced to Seven Years of Hard Labor
According to the National, “A Lebanese court handed a man known as the ‘Captagon King’ a seven-year sentence with hard labour on Thursday for producing and trafficking the illegal drug, a judicial source told AFP. This is the first time a major drug baron has been convicted in a Captagon case in Lebanon.”  [The National]

Nasrallah Responds to Bassil’s Remarks
According to the L’Orient Today, “Hezbollah rejected on Thursday criticism apparently leveled at it two days ago by its Christian ally, the head of the Free Patriotic Movement, Gebran Bassil, who appeared to accused the party, without explicitly naming it, of having “broken an agreement” regarding the boycott of cabinet meetings called by caretakter Prime Minister Najib Mikati. In a rare statement, the party led by Hassan Nasrallah also denied having promised Bassil that the government ministers affiliated to it ‘would boycott urgent government meetings if the FPM ministers are absent’.” [L’Orient Today]

Mroue writes, “Lebanon’s once burgeoning banking sector has been hard hit by the country’s historic economic meltdown. It has suffered staggering losses worth tens of billions of dollars and many of the small nation’s lenders now face possible closures or mergers. Yet bankers have been resisting attempts to make their shareholders assume responsibility for those losses and instead have been trying to shift the burden to the government or even their own depositors. The country’s political class, blamed for decades of corruption and mismanagement that led to the meltdown, has also resisted reforms. Restructuring the banking sector is a key demand of the International Monetary Fund to start getting Lebanon out of its paralyzing financial crisis. The proposed IMF reforms will likely force most of the country’s 46 banks — a huge number for a nation of 5 million people — to close down or merge.”

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“Judges have suspended their work as rampant inflation eats away at their salaries, paralysing the judiciary and leaving detainees in limbo — the latest outcome of Lebanon’s years-long financial crisis . . . Bureaucracy and rampant corruption have long delayed verdicts and judicial proceedings in Lebanon, where 8,000 people are estimated to be jailed, most of them awaiting a verdict. But now, underfunded public institutions have taken a hit after the country’s economy went into free-fall in 2019, with basic state services like renewing passports or completing a real estate transaction often taking months to complete. Although judges’ salaries are expected to triple as part of Lebanon’s 2022 budget, their wages are currently worth only around $160 on average due to soaring inflation.”

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