A couple of weeks ago, Michael Safi went to meet a bank robber. She was about 5ft tall, in her late 20s, and wearing fluffy slippers. Her name is Sali Hafez. At the end of her tether, she took a plastic replica gun and a bottle of petrol and walked into a branch of her bank to demand they gave her the money in her account. She says the balance was over $100,000. They gave her $14,000. This is the story of how Lebanon’s banks became so dysfunctional that they had to prevent customers withdrawing their own money.
I produced this episode with Michael Safi and Phil Maynard. Sound design by Axel Kacoutié.
