A group of Lebanese lawyers filed a complaint Wednesday asking the country’s top prosecutor to investigate banker Antoun Sehnaoui over a Washington dinner he allegedly co-hosted that was attended by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The complaint accuses Sehnaoui of “communicating with the Israeli enemy,” lawyer Mohamad Amer Al Haj Hassan, one of the complainants, told reporters.
The filing reflects heightened sensitivity in Lebanon over possible normalization with Israel. Lebanon and Israel remain formally at war, though Beirut pledged during recent U.S.-brokered talks to pursue peaceful relations.
Lebanese law prohibits citizens from conducting transactions with Israeli nationals or institutions.
Israel also maintains troops in a strip of southern Lebanon captured during fighting with the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group earlier this year.
Prime Minister Netanyahu
(Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)
Netanyahu’s office said the prime minister attended a July 27 dinner honoring Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, a staunch supporter of Israel who died July 11. The statement did not identify the event’s organizers.
An Israeli official and another person briefed on the dinner said it was organized by Sehnaoui and Morgan Ortagus, who previously served as U.S. President Donald Trump’s deputy special envoy to the Middle East.
Lebanese lawmaker Halima Kaakour described Sehnaoui’s meeting with Netanyahu as a “major moral and national crisis” while Israeli troops remain on Lebanese territory.
Sehnaoui, who lives in the United States, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Sehnaoui comes from a prominent banking family and serves as chairman of Société Générale de Banque au Liban. He previously drew criticism in Lebanon after saying in an April post on X that he had attended a Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony in Washington with Ortagus.