Raja Salameh, younger brother of Banque du Liban (BDL) governor Riad Salameh. (Credit: NNA/ File photo)
BEIRUT — Authorities postponed a Banque du Liban (BDL) corruption hearing scheduled for Thursday after Raja Salameh, the brother of BDL governor Riad Salameh, failed to show up due to "medical reasons," a senior judicial source told L'Orient-Le Jour.
The governor of the BDL, his brother Raja and his former advisor Marianne Hoayek are being prosecuted by the Lebanese judiciary for "money laundering, illicit enrichment and tax evasion."
Riad Salameh is also the subject of several European investigations, two of which, in Germany and France, are accompanied by Interpol red notices. He denies the accusations against him.
According to a legal source with close knowledge of the case, Raja Salameh suffers from renal colic, which often prevents him from moving around.
His lawyer submitted two medical reports on Thursday, dated June 6 and 11, to justify his absence, the source added, but the head of the State Legal Department, Helene Iskandar, asked the first investigating judge in Beirut Charbel Abou Samra not to accept these reports and instead to task a forensic doctor with verifying Salameh’s state of health.
Judge Abou Samra then instructed Raja Salameh's lawyer to submit, by Monday at the latest, a forensic medical report dated Thursday. On the basis of this report, Judge Abou Samra will then have to set a new session.
Raja Salameh has already missed several hearings, reportedly for health reasons, including one by European judges over commissions received by his company Forry Associates Ltd on sales of BDL securities. Raja Salameh finally appeared before the European judges at the beginning of May.
Riad Salameh, who has headed the BDL since 1993, is suspected by European investigators of having built up a wealth of real estate and banking assets in Europe through a complex financial arrangement and massive misappropriation of Lebanese public funds, accusations which he denies.
In March 2022, France, Germany and Luxembourg announced the freezing of 120 million euros in Lebanese assets suspected of belonging to Riad Salameh. Last May, France and Germany issued arrest warrants for Riad Salameh via Interpol red notice.