Banque du Liban Governor Riad Salameh in his office at the end of 2021. (Credit: Joseph Eid/AFP)
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A delegation of European judges investigating allegations of corruption and money laundering by Banque du Liban chief Riad Salameh is scheduled to arrive in Beirut this week to conduct five days of hearings with around 25 people, a judicial source told L'Orient Today. Judges from France, Luxembourg and Switzerland are expected to question Salameh, his brother Raja along with CEOs and other bank officials while in Lebanon. However, since no warrants have been issued by the Lebanese judiciary, attendance at the hearings is non-compulsory. The European judges will be present at the hearings during which Lebanese lawyers from the public prosecutor's office will relay the delegation’s questions. The fact that foreign investigators are holding hearings in Lebanon has however sparked controversy among Lebanese judges.
Lebanese judges agreed to gradually end a four-month strike after a fivefold increase to magistrates' salaries, a Lebanese Judges Association source told L'Orient Today on Thursday. The judges’ decision comes after a general assembly on Dec. 28, which resulted in promises of new financial aid multiplying certain magistrates’ salaries by five, the source said. The Higher Judicial Council on the same day called for judges “to resume work in all courts, as far as possible.” Judges launched the open-ended strike in August to protest the stark depreciation of their salaries concomitant to the lira's decline in value. The central bank attempted and quickly recalled an intervention raising judges' salaries by allowing them to exchange lira to dollars at a stronger rate following protests from other public sector employees and some judges. Demands for improved compensation reverberated across different public institutions last year, including a prolonged work interruption by public employees across sectors and more specific work stoppages including separate protests by state-owned mobile and fixed-line telecom operator employees.
The passport crisis marked by monthslong wait times to apply for travel document renewals is expected to end on Feb. 15, General Security head Abbas Ibrahim said on Saturday. “On Feb.y 15, we will bring back the passport production machine to how it used to be before the crisis,” Ibrahim said, adding that General Security will produce “approximately 3,000 passports on a daily basis.” Ibrahim blamed the long waits for passports, which have left many citizens stuck in Lebanon, on “politics” and “a dispute over the price [and] the dollar-lira exchange rate” to finance tenders to obtain passports. Late last December, Ibrahim announced the arrival of approximately 100,000 passports early this year. General Security also abolished last Monday a special procedure allowing expedited passport processing for students studying abroad, patients who need to receive medical treatment abroad or citizens who need to renew a residency permit abroad.
Power supply issues caused a running water outage in Beirut, Mount Lebanon and Saida, South Lebanon over the weekend. The Beirut and Mount Lebanon Water Establishment called on authorities’ intervention as power cuts affecting “the infrastructure of the establishment, the main production stations, wells and all distribution stations” led to an absence of running water in localities of Metn, the Beirut neighborhoods of Tallet al-Khayat and Burj Abi Haidar, and in Burj Hammoud. Meanwhile, the South Lebanon Water Establishment called on users to “ration their water consumption” until the issue is resolved as Saida faced a similar water cut. Electricité du Liban's electricity provision deficits regularly pervade to other sectors, while power-cut related water shortages, especially amid the outbreak of cholera, a waterborne illness, at the end of last year, remain a regular reminder of the public electricity institution’s failures. Electricité du Liban last Wednesday announced the shutdown of its two largest power plants, Zahrani (South Lebanon) and Deir Ammar (North Lebanon), due to the depletion of its fuel reserves.
An army raid on Friday in Baalbeck killed one suspect and injured another amid a search for two kidnapped children abducted three months ago in the region. The army fired back at the suspects after they attacked the soldiers in an attempt to escape from a search conducted in the Sharawneh neighborhood of Baalbeck to locate the suspected captors. The raid reportedly led to the arrest of other suspects wanted for unrelated crimes. The locations of Mohanad and Ghaleb, aged 13 and 15, remain unknown after they were taken on their way home from school in the area three months ago; meanwhile, reports of their torture continue to circulate online. The children's father called on army commander Joseph Aoun and numerous international parties to intervene to liberate the brothers. The kidnapper, in a call with the children’s uncle, reportedly threatened to harvest their organs if a $350,000 ransom goes unpaid. Previous searches by the army have not borne fruit in rescuing the children but have led to altercations between the army and wanted persons.
In case you missed it, here’s our must-read story from over the weekend: “Barbara Walters’ Beirut encounter with Yasser Arafat”
Compiled by Abbas Mahfouz