The General Director of the Road Traffic Department, Hoda Salloum. (Credit: National News Agency)
Mount Lebanon investigating judge Ziad Daghidi ordered the release of the director general of the road traffic department, Hoda Salloum, on Wednesday, along with five other vehicle registration employees, according to a senior judicial source.
Their release included a set bail of LL300 million each and a two-month ban from performing their duties.
Hoda Salloum was arrested last November in an ongoing case related to suspected corruption in the country's vehicle registration centers. Dozens of other employees were also arrested in a wide-ranging corruption investigation. Several high-ranking officials are being prosecuted.
Daghidi's request must be approved by the prosecutor's office before Salloum and the other suspects can be released, the judicial source told L'Orient-Le Jour.
If the release request is not approved, the judge has 24 hours to appeal to the Indictment Chamber, the same source explained, adding that the five other employees included in the request are minor officials.
The vehicle registration centers in Dekwaneh, east of Beirut, and its branches in Saida, Nabatiyeh (South Lebanon), Zahleh (Bekaa) and Tripoli (North Lebanon) resumed work this week after several months of general closure due to the mass arrests of employees of the administration.
As part of a wider fight against corruption in the country, several employees of the land registries in Mount Lebanon were also arrested in recent months.
Officials of the land registry, particularly in Baabda and Metn, allegedly amassed huge sums of money through bribes from taxpayers.