Lebanon’s tainted central bank chief leaves an economy in tatters

Lebanon’s tainted central bank chief leaves an economy in tatters

Lebanon’s central bank governor Riad Salameh is about to step down from the top job after 30 years. But he leaves behind an economy in a state of collapse, and a country in the grip of one of the world’s worst financial crises, as BBC News Middle East correspondent Anna Foster reports from Beirut.

It is hard to tell exactly what is inside the bottle that Omar Aawar holds up to the camera. But in the grainy viral video, he makes his situation crystal clear. This is a hold-up at Omar’s bank, and he’s mixed his own home-made acid to threaten the staff into handing over money. 

“I spilled some drops on a calculator and on the floor to show the acid was for real, it bubbled and boiled,” he told me.