Bank of Lebanon Governor Riad Salameh on Nov. 23, 2021, during an interview with Reuters in Beirut. (Credit: Mohamed Azakir/Reuters)
There was a chaotic atmosphere on Tuesday in front of the Banque du Liban headquarters in Beirut. Mount Lebanon Public Prosecutor Judge Ghada Aoun returned to fray against BDL Governor Riad Salameh who has refused to appear before the judicial authorities for investigation into him on suspicions of corruption.
This highly publicized raid, as usual, cost her sharp remarks by caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who described it as “raid for show” and called for a “political agreement on a new governor.”
Mikati’s remarks gave the case a political dimension, as the judge is known for being close to the Free Patriotic Movement, which has reiterated calls to replace Salameh.
Judge Aoun’s raid, along with members of the State Security, an institution that is headed by a person close to Baabda, did not find Salameh at BDL. Instead, it provoked the anger of BDL's employees, who announced a strike in protest against the raid.
Earlier Tuesday morning before the raid, State Security forces first went to Salameh’s villa in Rabieh in Metn, where they could not find him. When they headed to BDL’s headquarters in Hamra, they were prevented from entering the premises following a decision by Beirut Public Prosecutor Judge Raja Hamoush.
‘Not a raid for show’
Speaking to L’Orient-Le Jour, Judge Aoun explained that she conducted the search under a new search warrant she issued against Salameh in June on suspicions of manipulating BDL’s balance sheet entries. The warrant in question expires within a month and the crime is punishable with three years of imprisonment.
“That is why I conducted the search today. It was not a raid for show. In my capacity as public prosecutor at the Court of Appeal in Mount Lebanon and since BDL is headquartered in Beirut, the public prosecution at the Court of Cassation was informed so as to grant its authorization,” she said.
“I entered BDL’s premises because we had been informed that the governor was there. I then received a phone call from Judge Hamoush requesting that I leave the premises.”
Less than an hour after her arrival, Judge Aoun left the premises, without Salameh.
Mikati calls for a political agreement
In response to Judge Aoun’s raid, Mikati, who is known for his opposition to a quick dismissal of the governor, denounced “a raid for show, which is not the appropriate solution in dealing with the Salameh case.”
He said that this kind of measures “threatens the country’s stability and can have ominous consequences.” “This file needs to be dealt with following a political agreement on a new BDL governor, so that the judicial investigation takes its appropriate legal course,” he added.
Judge Aoun issued a subpoena against Salameh, 71, who has been leading BDL since 1993, in February. He is also banned from traveling and his real estate assets have been frozen, as part of an investigation into alleged fraud during his tenure.
Judge Aoun issued a search warrant for Salameh in April, as part of an investigation into $8 billion in subsidized BDL loans before the 2019 economic crisis in Lebanon. But he had refused to appear before her.
Moreover, this is not the first time that this type of raid occurs. State Security searched a house belonging to Salameh in Rabieh on June 22, also in the presence of Aoun.
Three-day strike at the BDL
A few minutes after Judge Aoun left BDL’s premises, the head of the central bank employees’ union, Abbas Awada, criticized the prosecutor’s raid and announced that BDL staff will go on strike.
“We refuse to be treated with militia-like methods and we are announcing a strike,” he said, as his voice trembles with anger in front of the media. “We are not defending Riad Salameh but rather this institution, and these methods are unacceptable to us.”
He added that the employees stopped working on Tuesday and that the union’s board will meet to determine the strike’s duration, “demanding that the judges take actions in response to Ghada Aoun’s behavior.”
The union for BDL’s employees announced in a statement on Tuesday afternoon, a three-day strike, starting Wednesday, and threatened of going on an “open-ended strike” if the authorities “do not put an end to Judge Ghada Aoun’s behavior.”
BDL’s governor is blamed by part of the Lebanese for the economic and financial crisis in which Lebanon has been sinking since 2019. In addition, probes into Salameh’s assets in Lebanon are ongoing, in addition to other investigations in at least five European states (Germany, Belgium, France, Luxembourg and Monaco).
This article was originally published in French. Translation by Joelle El Khoury.