LONDON: As Lebanon’s unprecedented economic downfall continues, catalyzed by a medical crisis and mass anti-corruption protests, the country’s tweeters took to social media to showcase the vast wealth of the politicians that are meant to serve them.
اليوم في أغنية وحدة بس حتنزل وهي للشحرورة صباح https://t.co/8Son6kTsYr pic.twitter.com/su8CZ6pygj
— Salhany (@nofear5193) January 31, 2021
Photos of the country’s political leaders wearing luxury watches worth thousands of dollars made the rounds on Twitter, all while the country’s second largest city Tripoli enters its fifth day of protests against the government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
Figures shown in photos include US-sanctioned former foreign minister Gebran Bassil — who is also the son-in-law of President Michel Aoun — and similarly sanctioned former finance minister Ali Hassan Khalil. Lebanon’s 32nd Prime Minister Fouad Sanioura also made the list, as did former ministers of energy Nada Boustani, former interior minister Nohad Al-Machnouk and the now-charged Central Bank Gov. Riad Salameh.
ساعات سياسيين وموظفي دولة لبنانيين تبلغ عشرات آلاف الدولار
وناشطون : بيعوها منسدد الدين العام pic.twitter.com/us6LqCzUZc— LEB NOW (@leb_now) January 31, 2021
One of the most expensive watches belongs to former defense minister Elias Bou Saab, whose Patek Philippe watch is worth a staggering $185,582. Boustani’s timepiece was also among the most costly, with a tweet showing her wearing a pair, that when put together, costs about $50,000.
#التدقيق_الجنائي_الآن
رخيصة والله pic.twitter.com/FQq5hZF3CF— Polly اليوم تبع السيارات (@H0llyP0lly) January 31, 2021
احتياطي الذهبhttps://t.co/ZkdepCDs73 pic.twitter.com/WFnUuyfgEp
— Polly اليوم تبع السيارات (@H0llyP0lly) January 31, 2021
Lebanon is going through one of the most challenging periods since its independence, which includes a 15-year long civil war and targeted assassinations.
لو بدكن تدقيق جنائي فتشولي كيف ندى عندا ساعات ب ٥٠ الف دولار pic.twitter.com/aVL1Y2kff1
— مصادر مطلعة (@samir_tl5) January 31, 2021
Hungry and poverty-stricken protesters stormed one of Lebanon’s poorest cities, Tripoli, in recent days, and set fire to government buildings in a call for action from a standstill government.
