Governor of the Banque du Liban Riad Salameh. (Credit: JOSEPH EID/AFP/Getty Images/file photo)
BEIRUT — The French ruling on the validity of seizures made on BDL Governor Riad Salameh's assets will be delivered on July 4. It will be communicated via email to the parties concerned, a source close to the case told L'Orient-Le Jour on Tuesday. Salameh is suspected of having amassed assets in Europe using Lebanese public funds.
The chamber will either approve or lift the seizure of Salameh's assets. Salameh maintained bank secrecy on the movement of funds between his and his brother's accounts. Despite this, he claims innocence.
On Tuesday, the investigating chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal studied the requests for nullity made by Salameh's camp.
Dozens of Salameh's assets , valuing in the tens of millions of euros, have been seized. This includes apartments in the 16th arrondissement and the Champs-Elysees in Paris, in the United Kingdom, in Belgium, as well as various bank accounts.
According to sources close to the case, the public prosecutor's office requested Tuesday confirmation of the seizures.
Salameh was summoned to Paris for questioning on May 16 but did not show up. Since then, the BDL Governor has become the subject of an international arrest warrant issued by the investigating judge in charge of the case in France. Lebanon has received a red notice from Interpol, based on this warrant, a Lebanese judicial source told AFP on Friday. The same source explained that Salameh, who would be summoned soon, would be "tried in Lebanon" if the country's judiciary decides that the charges of money laundering and illicit enrichment are founded. The French judicial investigation was opened in July 2021, in parallel with European and Lebanese investigations.
Meanwhile, Salameh continues to assume his functions at the head of the BDL, which he has headed since 1993. On Thursday evening, in an interview with the Saudi Arabian TV channel al-Hadath, he referred to the accusations made against him as "unfounded."