Swiss delegation to investigate Salameh case in Beirut

Switzerland informed Lebanon on Thursday that it would send a judicial delegation to Beirut as part of the investigation into the European assets of the Banque du Liban (BDL) Governor Riad Salameh, a judicial source told AFP.

Switzerland was the first European country to open an investigation into the more than $300 million in funds transferred by the Governor, his former assistant Marianne Hoayek and his brother Raja.

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"Lebanon has been informed by the Swiss authorities that a Swiss judicial delegation will shortly be travelling to Beirut to meet with Judge Charbel Abou Samra," who is leading the local investigation, in order to obtain "useful information for the Swiss investigation," said the judicial source.

The source suggested that "the Swiss judiciary is following the European countries that have held hearings in Beirut on the financial files concerning the Governor of the BDL and those close to him."

At the beginning of 2021, the Swiss Federal Prosecutor's Office said that it sent Lebanon a request for judicial assistance in connection with an "investigation into aggravated money laundering (...) linked to a possible misappropriation of funds at the expense of the BDL," without however naming any suspects.

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In April 2021, the Lebanese judiciary opened a local investigation into the Governor's assets, after the Swiss investigation had been opened.

 Salameh, who has headed the BDL since 1993, is suspected of ammasing a wealth of property and banking assets in Europe through a complex financial arrangement involving the misappropriation of Lebanese public funds, which he denies.

In March 2022, France, Germany and Luxembourg announced that they were freezing €120 million in Lebanese assets they suspected belonged to Salameh.

Last month, France and Germany respectively issued an arrest warrant for the Governor via an Interpol red notice.

The authorities in Lebanon, which do not extradite nationals to other countries, then questioned the Governor and forbade him from leaving the country, seizing both his Lebanese and French passports.

This article is a translated version of an AFP article published in French in L'Orient-Le Jour

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