By Bassam Zaazaa – arabnews.com — BEIRUT: A Lebanese man was released on bail this week after a fortnight in detention for taking people hostage and threatening to blow a bank up while trying to withdraw $50,000 of his own money. Abdullah Al-Saii armed himself with a gun, grenade and bottles of benzene before entering a branch of the Bank of Beirut and Arab Countries (BBAC) in Jeb Jannine in Bekaa Valley, eastern Lebanon, last month. He said BBAC staff had refused his previous requests to withdraw $50,000 in savings, blaming Lebanon’s economic and banking crisis. Lebanese Internal Security Forces (ISF) apprehended him after the bank agreed to give the money to his wife in return for his surrender at the end of a standoff lasting nearly five-hours.

An ISF official said that Al-Saii held more than 10 BBAC staff and customers hostage for several hours, demanding he be allowed to withdraw the money. Investigating Judge Amani Salama released Al-Saii on 200,000 Lebanese pounds bail (around $10 at Thursday’s rate) and ordered that the $50,000 remain in his possession. A retired judge told Arab News that Al-Saii remains uncharged pending the Bekaa attorney general’s final decision: “He could be facing misdemeanor charges and not criminal ones.” In a 28–second video posted on Twitter by journalist Rachel Karam, Al-Saii could be heard saying from a detention center: “Thank God, I did not steal money.” He stressed that he is “under the law” and all that he did was “retrieve his own right.” Judge Salama was praised on social media for her “independent, bold and just decision” to release Al-Saii, who was labelled a “national hero” for retrieving his money. A Twitter user said: “We encourage everybody to retrieve their right in their own hands.”