Omar al-Rassi, “Akhbar al-Yawm” agency

Judicial source: to determine telephone numbers and how to communicate between them

Dollar exchange rate... The people suffer from two things: the high prices and the low purchasing power, especially since what is happening at this level is manipulation without any economic or financial justifications, but perhaps it is for political and profit purposes...

The governor of the Bank of Lebanon, Riad Salameh, has long ago asked the state to act to close the platforms of manipulation of the dollar, but did not move a finger, to confront the ruling platforms by its order, and traders rely on them to determine prices. The responsibility for this collapse of the lira is borne from the head of power down to the last Judge.

What is the role of the judiciary and security services in this regard?

A judicial source confirms that the public prosecution of discrimination or the public prosecution of Finance should move, explaining that according to the law the public prosecutor of discrimination is the head of all public prosecutions in Lebanon, and financial crimes are within the scope of the powers of the public prosecutor of Finance.

In an interview with "Akhbar al-Yawm" agency, the source says: no one can make any argument considering that these platforms are outside Lebanon, but on the contrary money moves inside, adding that the beneficiaries are Lebanese as well as affected, stressing that there is a system or rather a gang that controls national currency, as according to articles 319 and 320 of the Penal Code that what happens is illegal speculation through the purchase of foreign currency for personal profit or political profit.

The source added: It is inconceivable that the information division and the Intelligence Directorate could not know the drivers of Whatsapp groups or the operators of electronic applications or who buys hard currency from outside the banking platform that was launched by the Bank of Lebanon, if the investigation would have progressed, it would have revealed a lot of information.

In response to a question, the source stressed that even if these applications are registered outside Lebanon, the beneficiaries are inside the country, the public prosecutor must disclose the identity of these persons.

In this context, the Intelligence Directorate and the information division have sophisticated equipments to pursue cybercrime and identify phone numbers and owners and how to communicate between them, in addition, the existence of "informants who can know everything", and the office must combat cybercrime specifically to pursue applications and determine the country of origin and on any platforms they operate, and it must communicate with the countries where they are in order to stop them.

Here, the source pointed out that the trade of cheques is inseparable from the manipulation of the dollar, saying: this system – the gang makes a lot of profits through illegal dealing in the disposal of cheques, which is one of the reasons for the deterioration of the Lebanese pound, and this is considered a criminal offence... If they do not succeed in bringing them, the financial prosecutor must expose the manipulators and their political and party affiliations.

"When cheques come out of banks, how can their value be manipulated?"

There are huge numbers of cheques that enter banks and go to the Bank of Lebanon, and here is the following question: What are the duties of the government commissioner at the Bank of Lebanon, is he doing his duty to ask the concerned bodies at the Bank of Lebanon, to check cheques that are entered into the accounts of people who have not previously had any business transactions that allow them to trade these numbers? Since 2019, the movement of new checks has started and increased significantly in 18 or 20 months.

In addition, the judicial source considered that what happens at the level of the exchange rate is inseparable from the political crisis, where there are basic stations of Rise and fall, as when President Saad Hariri was assigned to form the government, the exchange rate dropped significantly, and recorded a crazy rise with his recusal. The marked decline was repeated as president Najib Mikati formed his government, and with renewed conflicts in recent weeks it has risen again.

Whatever the reason for the rise or fall, the Lebanese people are paying the price. The source concluded: the judiciary must act, as there are hundreds of phone numbers used by the owners of banking companies, or money brokers, can be arrested.