A group of lawyers has filed a case in a Beirut court against Lebanese banker Antoun Sehnaoui after he hosted a dinner and shared a table with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Under Lebanese law, citizens and residents are banned from engaging in direct dealings with Israelis or Israeli institutions, with violations punishable by prison. Mr Sehnaoui has lived outside Lebanon for several years and has publicly advocated establishing diplomatic relations with Israel.
Referring to a law passed in 1955, Maan Alasaad, the lawyer who filed the case at the Court of Cessation, said: “By law, any communication of any kind, any meeting directly or indirectly with any person who has an Israeli passport, is illegal.
“We will not accept any breaking of the constitution or the law. We will not be afraid to fight,” he told The National.
The dinner in Washington was hosted by Mr Sehnaoui and his partner, US diplomat Morgan Ortagus, on July 27.
“Antoun Sehnaoui is a Lebanese businessman and tycoon” said a Hezbollah official. “He's always had close ties with the Israelis and especially the Netanyahu family. He represents the Israeli interests in Lebanon.”
But more than this, the meeting – at a memorial dinner for US senator Lindsey Graham, who died on July 11 – has provoked anger and revulsion across Lebanon, given recent wars with Israel and its continued occupation and destruction of vast areas of the country, especially in the south.
“What Mr Sehnaoui did was highly disgraceful,” said Mr Alasaad. “He met with a prime minister who is committing crimes. And he held it in his honour."
Mr Sehnaoui is chairman of Societe Generale de Banque au Liban (SGBL), one of Lebanon’s largest banks. Prosecutors in Lebanon have filed charges against him and his bank over alleged money laundering linked to currency-trading operations during the financial crisis that began in 2019. The bank denies any wrongdoing.
The Lebanese economic collapse, from which the country has yet to recover, was described as one of the worst in modern history by the World Bank. It was blamed on decades of financial mismanagement and corruption by Lebanon's ruling elite, including senior bankers.
Investigators have reported allegations that SGBL enabled capital flight and benefited from financial engineering associated with former central bank governor Riad Salameh.
The Lebanese banker and businessman, who faces corruption allegations, first appeared in public alongside Ms Ortagus in April at a ceremony held at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, months after rumours about a relationship between the two had started.
Mr Sehnaoui hosted the Washington dinner “using the money that the Lebanese people have been robbed of from the banks”, Mr Alasaad said.
