Nayla Assaf
Daily Star staff

Money exchangers denounced the police on Wednesday for “not doing enough” to protect them in light of a marked increase in robberies and assaults on their businesses.
Speaking at a conference held at the Mathaf headquarters of the Order of Money Changers in Lebanon, Mahmoud Halawi, the group’s head, urged the authorities to exert more effort in uncovering the perpetrators in the recent wave of robberies and to increase security near exchange offices.
He also asked that police crack down on illegal exchange offices dotting the country.
“The money exchanging sector … is a vital economic pillar essential to the financial cycle,” he said, saying that it had now become a “hazardous” career.
Jean Assaf, vice-president of the order, pointed out the increase in illegal money changers, saying that the government has not done enough too crack down on them.
“We are citizens who work and pay our taxes, while the (unlicensed money exchangers) jumble the prices as they wish,” he said.
“This is the equivalent of stealing and the authorities should stop them once and for all,” he added.
Upstanding people in the business, Halawi maintained, are also “being muscled by gangs who want a piece of pie.”
In the past year, violent crimes have claimed the lives
of three money changers: Jamal Hayek in Akkar, Joseph Hayek in Jounieh and most recently, Rizkallah Sfeir in Dora.
There have also been a number of assaults on those who
run exchange establishments, the latest being Shehadeh Sukhn, who suffered a head injury Monday during a robbery at his office in Dora.
Sukhn, who remains in bandages and visibly shaken by the incident, recounted how two thieves robbed and assaulted him in broad daylight, leaving him covered in blood.
Ahmad Sammak, another victim from Sidon, said he had lost his life savings and is now crippled after he was assaulted in his store two years ago.
“I went into a coma for six weeks and had to undergo brain surgery three times,” he said, complaining that he had been unable to work.
According to Rashid Qotob, from Sidon, the authorities’ neglect is “unacceptable.”
Riad Solh Square in Sidon has 14 exchange offices and 14 banks, he said.
“But not one security officer is ever standing guard.”
The order also called on all exchange offices to suspend their work for an hour beginning at 1pm Thursday to protest “these crimes against us.”

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