Governor of the BDL Riad Salameh in Beirut, November 21, 2008. (Credit: Ramzi Haidar/AFP
The Lebanese judiciary on Wednesday banned Banque du Liban (BDL) governor Riad Salameh from leaving the country, a judicial source told AFP.
This decision was made after a Wednesday hearing at the Palace of Justice in Beirut. During the hearing, which lasted over an hour, Salameh handed over his Lebanese and French passports to Lebanese authorities, a senior judicial source told Reuters.
France issued a warrant for Salameh's arrest on May 16 after he failed to show up for a Paris court hearing. Days later, Interpol issued a red notice for the governor, an alert typically issued for international fugitives.
The judge before whom Mr. Salameh appeared also decided to ask the French justice to hand over the case file.
Salameh faces charges in Lebanon, France and Germany over accusations that he colluded with his brother to take hundreds of millions of dollars from the central bank to the detriment of the Lebanese state, and then laundered the money abroad.
He denies the accusations.
Germany issued its own arrest warrant for Salameh on Tuesday, according to two informed sources. One of them said Lebanon had received verbal notice of the warrant.
The governor told Reuters he had not been notified of the German arrest warrant.