According to information obtained by L'Orient-Le Jour from a source close to the Cassation prosecutor's office, Riad Salameh, former governor of the Central Bank, has been placed under arrest.

"Justice has said what it had to say, and we respect this decision," stated the caretaker Justice Minister Henri Khoury.

Salameh was arrested in Beirut after being questioned "for three hours by the attorney general regarding suspicions of embezzlement of BDL funds exceeding $40 million," a judicial source who requested anonymity told AFP.

A senior judicial source told Reuters that Salameh was arrested at the courthouse following a hearing into the central bank's dealings with Optimum Invest, a Lebanese company that offers income brokerage services, according to its website. It also said that Optimum had dealt with BDL to buy and sell treasury bonds and certificates of deposit in Lebanese pounds.

Optimum did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. An undated statement on its website said a financial audit had found “no evidence of wrongdoing or illegality” in the company’s dealings with the central bank.

A high-ranking judicial source interviewed by L'Orient-Le Jour refused to confirm that the arrest concerned the Optimum affair. 

The executive director of Optimum told L'Orient-Le Jour that the company was not summoned to the hearing of the former governor of BDL.

"We have not been informed of the arrest of Riad Salameh," they added.

According to a source at the Court of Cassation, Salameh is currently at the General Directorate of the Internal Security Forces. The acting Attorney General at the Court of Cassation, Jamal Hajjar, heard his statement and placed him in provisional detention for further investigation. Salameh had been summoned last Thursday by the criminal police. It is not known whether Hajjar has closed his investigation or whether he intends to continue it. The measures he could take after this stage will be either to keep the file or to refer it to the Appeals Prosecutor's Office or the Financial Prosecutor's Office.

When contacted, Salameh's lawyer in France, Pierre-Olivier Sur, did not immediately comment.

The former BDL head is suspected of corruption in Lebanon and abroad, accusations he has continued to deny.

Following the news of his arrest, the head of the Depositors Union, Fouad Debs, said that while on the surface this seemed like a positive development, he feared that "this is part of efforts to ultimately exonerate the former governor of the Central Bank through a flawed procedure, tainted with some kind of defect or doomed to failure."

“Anything remains possible at this stage,” Debs stated.

The Depositors' Outcry group also welcomed the announcement of Salameh's arrest.

"We expect the justice system to open all files and take measures regarding acts committed against the financial system, whether at the level of private banks or the central bank," a spokesperson for the group told L'Orient-Le Jour. "We have also called for an investigation into the Sayrafa case because there have been many embezzlement operations."

According to a judicial source close to the case, it is possible that others will be summoned in the coming days by the courts as part of the investigation.

Salameh is expected to remain in pre-trial detention for up to four days.

During this period, the Attorney General at the Cassation Prosecution Service Jamal Hajjar may summon other people in connection with the case for which the former governor of the BDL was arrested to clarify certain points.

The source also specified that once the interrogation of Salameh is completed, Hajjar will refer the case to the Beirut Appeals Prosecution, which will act under his supervision. After this, the Appeals Prosecution is expected to refer the case to the First Investigating Judge in Beirut.

This article originally appeared in French in L'Orient-Le Jour.