A file photo taken on Dec. 20, 2021 shows Lebanon's Banque du Liban Governor Riad Salameh posing during a studio photo session in Beirut. (Credit: Joseph Eid/AFP)
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Today a Paris Court of Appeals meeting is scheduled to discuss requests for the restitution of assets, worth tens of millions of euros, seized from Banque du Liban (BDL) governor Riad Salameh. Salameh maintains his innocence against allegations that he and his brother, Raja Salameh, embezzled hundreds of millions of dollars in commissions from the sale of BDL assets. The allegedly misappropriated funds are suspected to have been concealed in more than a dozen assets seized by French authorities — including apartments in the 16th arrondissement of Paris and on the Champs-Elysées. Assets worth hundreds of millions of euros have been frozen by French, German and Luxembourgian authorities — three of the at least five European countries investigating Salameh and his associates. Last month, Salameh appeared as a witness before a delegation of European judges during a hearing as part of a local investigation into the central bank chief — an appearance that could hurt the French case against him, Salameh’s French lawyer said. The next hearing in a Lebanese probe into Salameh is scheduled for Thursday, to discuss objections raised by his Lebanese lawyer.
The Lebanese judiciary questioned Lebanon’s Ambassador to Ukraine, Ali Daher, and one of his assistants over the alleged embezzlement of hundreds of thousands of dollars at the diplomatic mission, a judicial official told AFP. Daher returned to Lebanon pending the completion of the probe. The alleged embezzlement amounts to $318,000 — reportedly transferred first to a Ukrainian bank account, then to Beirut — including consular service fees, the ambassador’s apartment rent payments and other public funds. Lebanon’s top prosecutor reportedly issued a travel ban against Daher’s assistant and his wife, who have disappeared since their return to Lebanon, the same official said. In February 2022, caretaker Foreign Affairs Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said the ministry was considering closing down several foreign missions, calling on embassies to find funding from donors in the Lebanese diaspora — two months after proposing plans to cut the ministry’s expenses by $18 million, especially through cuts to embassy budgets.
Around 100 demonstrators rallied outside the Beirut Justice Palace yesterday after State Security summoned media outlet Megaphone News co-founder Jean Kassir. “I have no problem appearing before the courts, but not before security bodies,” Kassir told L’Orient Today during the protest, after Megaphone’s lawyer appeared on his behalf before State Security, claiming that questioning journalists is outside their jurisdiction. Lebanon’s top prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat reportedly requested the summons over a Megaphone post listing him as one of several “officials sought by justice” — named by judge Tarek Bitar in his probe into the Aug. 4, 2020 Beirut blast. Megaphone yesterday said State Security issued a second summons for Kassir, requesting his appearance today. The publication described the summons as a “breach of law,” noting that Oueidat “waited for the end of the [protest] before sending state security agents to summon Kassir again, thus sending a message to the entire body of journalists.” Another sit-in is planned for Thursday, preceding a hearing by the Anti-Cybercrime Bureau for Lara Bitar, editor-in-chief for news website The Public Source. Bitar was summoned in response to a complaint by the Lebanese Forces over an article alleging the party committed environmental crimes during the Lebanese Civil War (1975-90). The Public Source said its representatives intend to attend the hearing.
US-based law firm Arnold & Porter issued a statement Monday evening denying any connection of their client, Bahaa Hariri, to the rape and sexual assault allegations against his brother, former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri. On March 20, two women filed a complaint filed in a New York federal court suing Saad Hariri for “rape, assault, and batter[y]." Both women are former employees of Saudi Oger, a construction company owned by Saad Hariri that had an aviation branch. The alleged assaults took place from 2006 to 2009, while Saad Hariri was serving as a member of the Lebanese Parliament. According to the complaint, which L'Orient Today reviewed, Bahaa Hariri, alongside other members of the Hariri family, "aided and abetted" Saad Hariri's alleged sexual misconduct. Court papers seen by L’Orient Today contain allegations that Hariri committed “brutal workplace rape” against one plaintiff, and subjected both women to “false imprisonment, sexual assault, and sexual harassment.” Hariri’s press office denied the accusations of “rape, assault, and batter[y]” as “slander” and highlighted alleged former misconduct on the part of the plaintiffs, noting that this is the third attempt they have made in New York to bring charges against the former prime minister.
State electricity provider Electricité du Liban (EDL) said vandalism caused the collapse of three network towers in the Bekaa, jeopardizing electricity provision to the region. EDL said two other towers “are also at risk of falling at any time.” The theft of metal rivets from the towers and their subsequent collapse in the Makneh region of the Bekaa, along with vandalism to the main transmission line of the Baalbeck power station, pose risks of “completely isolating the northern Bekaa from the network,” said EDL. Attempts to ward off vandalism were met with thieves adapting their methods, EDL said, while a senior source at EDL estimated that more than 50 electrical stations throughout Lebanon were affected by theft in the previous three days, motivated by the sale of “ cables and the metal of the towers on the black market.” EDL said it does not currently have the necessary funds to “rehabilitate the damaged line.”
In case you missed it, here’s our must-read story from yesterday: “Captagon, the new ‘Gordian knot’ in normalizing ties with Syria”
Compiled by Abbas Mahfouz
Correction: This article has been amended to reflect that Saudi Oger was a construction company that had an aviation branch. A previous version stated that it was an airline.