His DC Dinner With Netanyahu Could Send Him to Prison

A Lebanese judge issued an order Wednesday that could lead to the arrest of prominent banker Antoun Sehnaoui if he returns to Lebanon over allegations of collaboration with Israel and violating laws prohibiting contact with Israelis, state media reported. The order came days after Sehnaoui dined in Washington with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the AP reports. Judge Ahmad Rami al-Hajj of the Court of Cassation issued a 30-day notice directing security forces to locate and question Sehnaoui. The banker is in the United States, but the order could result in his detention upon his return to Lebanon.

Twenty Lebanese lawyers had filed a complaint earlier Wednesday with the public prosecutor's office in Beirut over Sehnaoui's meeting with Netanyahu. They said he committed "the crimes of contacting and dealing with the Israeli enemy, violating the Israel boycott law, the crime of treason, and state security crimes." Sehnaoui is chairman of a group that includes one of Lebanon's biggest banks.

• The meeting drew controversy amid a backdrop of war. Lebanon and Israel have been holding US-backed direct talks for the first time in decades over the past three months, seeking an end to the latest fighting between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group in southern Lebanon. Lebanon's laws prevent its citizens from having contact with Israelis—the countries remain in a state of war since Israel was established in 1948—and violators could face prison terms.

• On Tuesday, Axios reporter Barak Ravid posted a photo on X of Sehnaoui sitting at a restaurant table with Netanyahu and his wife, Sara. Ravid wrote that Sehnaoui and former US envoy Morgan Ortagus hosted a dinner Monday in memory of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham that was attended by Netanyahu and US officials.
• The state-run National News Agency reported late Wednesday that al-Hajj's decision came after the Technical Information Office determined the photo was authentic and had not been altered, manipulated digitally, or generated using artificial intelligence.
• "What Mr. Sehnaoui did was highly disgraceful," Maan Alasaad, one of the lawyers who filed the complaint, tells the National. "He met with a prime minister who is committing crimes. And he held it in his honor."
• Sehnaoui, who has been mostly based in the US in recent years, has several businesses in Lebanon and abroad in sectors including banking, media, and the film industry. Like other senior bankers, Sehnaoui was harshly criticized following Lebanon's historic economic meltdown in 2019, when most people lost access to their money. He hosted the dinner "using the money that the Lebanese people have been robbed of from the banks," Alasaad says.