In this file photo taken on March 17, 2020, Syrian refugees look from the windows of a building under construction which they have been using as shelter in the city of Sidon in southern Lebanon. Syrians poured into Lebanon after civil war broke out in 2011 with Damascus's brutal suppression of peaceful protests. With the regime now back in control of most of the country, calls have intensified in crisis-hit Lebanon for Syrians to go home. (Credit: Mahmoud Zayyat/AFP)
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Marianne Hoayek, charged by Lebanese prosecutors as a suspected co-conspirator in a scheme to defraud Banque du Liban (BDL), attended a hearing before European judges yesterday. It was the European delegation’s third visit to Beirut to investigate BDL governor Riad Salameh. A French court document seen by Reuters said that Hoayek, Salameh’s former assistant, received up to €5 million from the central bank via accounts in Switzerland and Luxembourg. In February, General Attorney at the Court of Appeal of Beirut, Raja Hamouche, charged Hoayek, Salameh, and his brother Raja with “money laundering, embezzlement and illicit enrichment” for involvement in the alleged embezzlement of hundreds of millions of dollars in BDL commissions. France, Germany and Luxembourg ordered the seizure of assets linked to Salameh worth hundreds of millions of euros, allegedly acquired through embezzled public funds. On Tuesday, Raja Salameh skipped his hearing with the European judges, which judicial sources told L’Orient Today was due to his hospitalization and a prescribed week of rest. The delegation’s visit is expected to conclude on May 5.
A delegation of Lebanese Forces legislators filed an appeal against the extension of municipal council and mukhtar’s mandates. Former deputy prime minister Ghassan Hasbani and MPs Fadi Karam, George Okais, Ghayath Yazbek and Razi al-Hage and others filed an appeal to a law extending municipal councils’ and mukhtars’ mandates, passed on April 18. The session was boycotted by the LF. “Exceptional circumstances justify exceptional legislation,” Constitutional Council President Tannous Mechleb told L’Orient Today, noting that they “will have to examine the law, in addition to the parliamentary debates that preceded its adoption” — which at times were fraught with tension. The extension followed controversy among officials and lawmakers on how to provide funding to start the municipal elections, previously scheduled to start in May. “This appeal will motivate the government to organize the elections and assume its responsibilities,” Hasbani said.
Dozens of Lebanese Army and Security retirees demanded the receipt of fuel coupons, which they reportedly haven’t received for a year, during a sit-in outside the Interior Ministry in Beirut. A delegation of protesters discussed the discontinued coupons with caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi. Others told L’Orient Today that they were not given any justification for being denied fuel stipends — which they claim they are entitled to according to two separate state decisions. Last month, during two separate demonstrations, security forces fired tear gas in an attempt to disperse hundreds of army retirees protesting the inadequacy of their pensions amid spiraling inflation. Earlier this month, the caretaker cabinet tripled the salaries of public sector employees and retirees, including army and security personnel.
The Foreign Ministry announced the end of its Sudanese evacuation operation as the last group of Lebanese evacuees reached Saudi Arabia yesterday. The third and final group of evacuees is expected to reach Lebanon by Friday, the head of Lebanon's High Relief Commission, Muhammad Kheir, told L'Orient Today. On Tuesday, Caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said approximately “70 people” had been evacuated from Sudan — first reaching Jeddah aboard a Royal Saudi Navy ship and flying to Beirut International Airport. Fighting broke out between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces on April 15, killing hundreds of people, injuring thousands and prompting a rush by foreigners to evacuate the country.
An explosion at a house owned by an alleged bomb-maker killed one person in the Jamous neighborhood of Beirut’s southern suburbs yesterday, a Civil Defense spokesperson told L’Orient Today. Civil Defense confirmed that a woman's body was recovered from the home, where another explosion last month led the Lebanese Army to arrest a man thought to be “an agent in the service of a foreign entity.” The suspect was allegedly connected with another man arrested last month on suspicions of spying for Israel. In 2022, the security forces announced that they had arrested 185 people suspected of "collaboration" with Israel since 2019 — including the dismantling of 17 Israeli spy networks last May. Last December, AFP quoted a judicial source saying Israeli spy handlers exploited the suspected collaborators’ “difficult living and social conditions, which made it easier to recruit them.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, who is on an official visit to Beirut, said yesterday he encouraged all Lebanese parties to "speed up" negotiations to reach an agreement on electing a new president. The visit comes as Lebanon reaches nearly six months with no president amid deadlock over electing a candidate. Until now, Iran allies Hezbollah and the Amal Movement have supported the candidacy of the Marada leader, Sleiman Frangieh. Critics have claimed that the latter also enjoys the support of Paris, in the framework of a barter that would allow the election of a president close to the Iranian axis and a Prime Minister — Nawaf Salam — who could be supported by Riyadh. Meanwhile, the Lebanese Forces and other Hezbollah-opposed parties in Parliament have cast their ballots for independent Zgharta MP Michel Moawad, who has yet to garner enough votes to win.
In case you missed it, here’s our must-read story from yesterday: “Deadlock or shadow plan, why isn’t there movement towards an IMF deal?”
Compiled by Abbas Mahfouz