Banque du Liban chief Riad Salameh in Beirut, May 16, 2023. (Credit: Photo Joseph Eid/AFP)
BEIRUT — Riad Salameh, Banque du Liban (BDL) governor, appeared at the Beirut Justice Palace on Wednesday, a day after Lebanon received a second Interpol red notice issued against him, a judicial source following the case confirmed to L'Orient-Le Jour. The second red notice followed an arrest warrant for Salameh issued by Germany on May 23.
Reuters reported that the governor is being prosecuted by Germany "for corruption, forgery, money laundering and embezzlement."
According to the state-run National News Agency (NNA), attorney general at the Court of Cassation Imad Kabalan questioned Riad Salameh and then asked him to remain at the disposal of the judiciary. Kabalan also kept a travel ban against Salameh in place and maintained the confiscation of the BDL chief's Lebanese and French passports. The attorney general also asked the German judiciary to provide him with the file relating to the arrest warrant for Salameh so that he could take the appropriate decision on the matter.
According to the source, "the arrest warrant will not be executed in Lebanon because 'Interpol cannot arrest someone without the authorization of the prosecutor handling the case." This is a measure the Lebanese judiciary will not take, the source said.
Indeed, Najib Mikati's caretaker government had decided to leave the Salameh case in the hands of the judiciary.
Prior to the German arrest warrant, the French National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) had issued an arrest warrant for Salameh on May 16. Interpol subsequently issued a red notice for Salameh at France's request.
On Wednesday afternoon, the Interpol website still did not display the red notice for the German arrest warrant, only the one for the French arrest warrant.
Raja Salameh absent from hearing in Paris
Meanwhile, Raja Salameh, the governor's brother, who is suspect of financial malfeasance in France in connection with BDL, failed to appear at a hearing in Paris on Wednesday for "health reasons," his lawyer said, according to several local media outlets.
L'Orient-Le Jour could not immediately reach his lawyer.
The head of the central bank and his brother Raja, along with Marianne Hoyek, Riad Salameh's former assistant, are being prosecuted in Lebanon for corruption, forgery, money laundering, illicit enrichment and tax evasion. After missing three hearings with European investigators in Beirut, Raja Salameh was finally questioned on May 4 at the capital's Justice Palace. A judicial source told our publication that he had answered around 140 questions.
Raja Salameh was released in May 2022 on a historic bail of LL100 billion after being arrested and charged in Beirut with "complicity in illicit enrichment."
