Lebanese arrive to Port Sudan ahead of their evacuation by sea on April 23, 2023, as people flee the Sudanese capital. (Credit: AFP)
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French prosecutors told Banque du Liban (BDL) governor Riad Salameh that they plan to charge him with fraud and money laundering during a May 16 hearing in Paris, Reuters reported on Friday. The French court documents seen by Reuters allege that Salameh submitted doctored bank statements — supplied by another suspect in the French probe, AM bank chairman Marwan Kheireddine — in an attempt to subdue suspicions of embezzlement. On Saturday, a delegation of Lebanese politicians received Kheireddine at the Beirut international airport after his return from France, where he was indicted as part of the probe into Salameh in late March. Earlier this month, the Lebanese judiciary lifted a travel ban against Salameh after French prosecutors scheduled next month’s hearing in their probe into allegedly embezzled commissions from the sale of BDL assets — supposedly siphoned in collusion with the central bank chief’s brother, Raja Salameh, and hidden in now-seized real estate assets and bank accounts across Europe worth hundreds of millions of euros. A French lawyer representing Salameh, Pierre-Olivier Sur, previously told Reuters he may challenge the French hearing, noting that their investigators’ questioning of Salameh as a witness in Beirut creates an “insurmountable gap” for formally naming him as a suspect. Salameh and Kheireddine have denied wrongdoing. The central bank governor in January said he does not intend to prolong his three decades in office after the end of his term in May.
Around 60 Lebanese citizens are on their way to Beirut by sea after safely evacuating Khartoum after a week of deadly clashes, caretaker Prime Minister Najib’s Mikati’s advisor Fares Gemayel told L’Orient Today yesterday. “For now, all the information that we have is that the citizens are all safe and have been evacuated,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Walid Haidar told L’Orient Today, adding that, for safety reasons, he cannot disclose the route taken by the around 60-person convoy accompanied by Lebanon’s ambassador to Sudan, Dima Haddad. However, one Lebanese woman told L’Orient Today that her husband, who is in Khartoum, was unable to reach the rendezvous point for the convoy and remains stuck in the city. Hundreds of people have been killed since fighting began last Saturday at the outbreak of a protracted power struggle between Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhane and Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who jointly orchestrated the 2021 coup in Sudan, pitting the Sudanese army against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. Both parties claimed readiness to assist the evacuation of foreign nationals as US, France, Italy, Saudi Arabia and others rushed to evacuate their citizens.
Security officials and humanitarian sources told AFP that dozens of displaced Syrians have been deported from Lebanon in recent weeks. The UN refugee agency said it was “following up” with the reports. A humanitarian source claimed that at least 450 Syrians were arrested and 66 were deported since the start of April amid increased Army Intelligence raids on Syrian communities. A security official speaking to AFP linked the deportations to a crackdown on undocumented Syrian refugees. An army official, meanwhile, told AFP that the rise in deportations is due to overcrowding in detention centers. One person speaking to AFP said their deported relative’s life “is in danger” following the expulsion. Security sources, meanwhile, claimed that human smugglers were organizing return trips for deportees back into Lebanon. Late last year, Lebanon launched a mass repatriation plan for Syrian refugees, ignoring international community warnings that the returns would place the displaced persons in grave danger. Syrian refugees in Lebanon reported facing discriminatory practices, including “arrests at checkpoints … raids on camps, adoption of stricter movement rules, and tensions between host and refugee communities.”
Rival branches of the Syrian Socialist Nationalist Party (SSNP) gave conflicting accounts of an armed clash in Beit Shabab on Friday night reportedly sparked by competing claims to a party office. A Beit Shabab resident told L’Orient Today she was startled by gunfire at 3 a.m. Saturday that lasted “half an hour,” which an SSNP statement posted on the party’s official website attributed to an attempt to “occupy” a party building. A former SSNP spokesperson told L’Orient Today yesterday that the building is reportedly being used by supporters of current party chairman Rabih Banat and claimed the attackers are supporters of former chairman Assaad Hardan. Hardan-supporter and proclaimed SSNP “head of media,” Maan Hamiyeh, claimed the office was occupied after the tenant was “kidnapped and tortured.” The head of the Beit Shabab municipality, Elias Achkar, told L’Orient Today that the clashes did not result in any injuries, while claiming that neither branch has a rightful claim over the office building.
Workers on Thursday drained the reflecting pool in front of the Samir Kassir memorial in downtown Beirut after a video of children playing in it circulated on social media. The workers told L’Orient Today that the monthly draining and cleaning of the pool was being done in a rush this month, but they could not confirm any link to the video. Some social media users shared a video of children playing in the pool, using it to express their derision toward such use of the space. Other users reacted, by criticizing the outrage with which the video was shared for its racist implications, expressing support for the children’s right to appropriate public space. “Samir Kassir Square is for all the people, for all the children,” said a tweet by Gisele Khoury, the widow of the late Lebanese-Palestinian journalist Samir Kassir, for whom the square is named. Kassir was assassinated in 2005.
In case you missed it, here’s our must-read story from over the weekend: “Baalbeck’s golden-era heritage hotel weathers crisis with solar energy”
Compiled by Abbas Mahfouz