Banque du Liban governor Riad Salameh, during an interview with AFP at his office in Beirut, December 15, 2017. (Credit: Joseph Eid/AFP/File photo)
BEIRUT —Banque du Liban (BDL) Governor Riad Salameh appeared on Wednesday morning before Beirut's first investigating judge, Charbel Abou Samra, in connection with the charges brought against him, including forgery, money laundering, illicit enrichment and tax evasion.
Salameh's presence at the hearing was confirmed to L'Orient-Le Jour by a judicial source at the courthouse.
Riad Salameh's brother Raja and his former assistant Marianne Hoayek also attended the hearing. They left the Justice Palace before Riad Salameh, according to a source within the Justice Palace, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Contacted by L'Orient-Le Jour, the governor's French lawyer, Pierre-Olivier Sur, pointed out that his client "has always complied with the summonses issued by Lebanese judges, even when they were acting within the framework of international cooperation" with the various European jurisdictions that have brought charges against Riad Salameh.
"But why and how should he respond to summonses from foreign judges, particularly when these do not respect the formalities, as was the case for the summons received out of time from the French judges?" he added.
Salameh was summoned to appear in Paris on May 16, but failed to attend the hearing, claiming that he had not received the summons in time. It was after this failed hearing that French judge Aude Buresi issued a warrant for his arrest. Meanwhile, his brother Raja Salameh had repeatedly failed to attend hearings before Judge Abou Samra in recent months, citing health reasons.
Head of the BDL since 1993, Salameh, 72, is accused in Lebanon of corruption and of being one of the main culprits behind the serious financial crisis that has hit Lebanon since the fall of 2019. In this case, which is being investigated in several European countries, he is suspected of having built up a wealth of real estate and banking assets in Europe through a complex financial set-up and massive misappropriation of Lebanese public funds.