Cases Authority Head Helene Iskandar. (Rights reserved)
The Beirut Indictment Chamber, headed by Judge Nassib Elia, rejected on Tuesday the appeal lodged in mid-September by the Cases Authority Head Helene Iskandar against a decision by the acting First Investigative Judge in Beirut, Bilal Halawi, to prevent her from taking part in the hearings he is holding in the Optimum Invest case, linked to allegations of embezzlement by the former Governor of Banque du Liban (BDL), Riad Salameh.
The case involves treasury bonds transactions between BDL and Optimum Invest in 2015 and 2016, based on which Judge Halawi issued an arrest warrant on Sept. 9 against Salameh over alleged “embezzlement and theft of public funds, forgery and illicit enrichment.” This came following proceedings initiated six days earlier by Lebanon’s acting top prosecutor Jamal Hajjar.
In the wake of these proceedings, Judge Iskandar filed a complaint on Sept. 5, per the Judicial Organization Law, which empowers her to “protect the rights of the state in relation to compensation for damage caused,” should the suspected funds turn out to be public.
However, Halawi banned her from joining the case, and subsequently from attending the three hearings he had already conducted, on the grounds that she had not submitted authorization from caretaker Minister of Finance, Youssef Khalil.
According to information obtained by L’Orient-Le Jour, Judge Iskandar replied in writing that no legislative text required her to do so and noted that Khalil had given her the latitude in 2023 to sue for criminal damages in the Forry Associates case, involving Salameh and alleged brokerage operations.
It was also argued that Judge Iskandar does not have standing to join the case. In her missive, she replied that, in any case, “it is not up to the first investigative judge, but to the other party in the litigation [Riad Salameh]” to raise this issue.
On Tuesday, the Indictment Chamber rejected Judge Iskandar’s appeal on grounds of form rather than substance. The court ruled that the appeal was inadmissible because Judge Halawi’s decision to bar Judge Iskandar from attending the hearings was not in writing.
A judicial source told L’Orient-Le Jour that from the very first hearing with the first investigative judge (on Sept. 9), Judge Iskander had asked him to record both her request to attend and his rejection, but Judge Halawi had refrained from recording that, and verbally ordered her to leave his office.
Oct. 17 hearing
Although the Indictment Chamber’s decision can be challenged before the Court of Cassation, Judge Iskandar may not resort to that, according to the above-mentioned source. The source noted that the judge would opt for another course of action, without however specifying its nature. It is still unclear whether the situation will change, and whether she will be allowed to take part in the next hearing, which Judge Halawi has set for Oct. 17, according to information obtained by L’Orient-Le Jour.
The same Indictment Chamber, headed by Judge Nassib Elia, agreed to take note of a motion Judge Iskandar made in July. She had asked to abandon a ruling by another Indictment Chamber, at Judge Iskandar’s request, made to overturn a tacit decision by Judge Halawi’s predecessor, Judge Charbel Abou Samra, to free Salameh on Aug. 3, 2023, after questioning him in the Forry Associates case.
This article was originally published in L'Orient-Le Jour and translated by Joelle El Khoury.
