Former Governor of the Bank of Lebanon Riad Salamé, on May 15, 2017, during an interview in Beirut with Reuters agency. Mohamed Azakir/Reuters Archives
Released on bail of $14 million, paid last September, as part of the so-called Optimum Invest case — in which he is suspected of pocketing commissions worth several million dollars — former Banque du Liban (BDL, central bank) governor Riad Salameh is expected to be questioned soon in connection with another case.
At the request of John Azzi, head of the State Litigation Department, presiding investigating judge Roula Osman has scheduled a hearing for Dec. 10 in the so-called Forry Associates case. This case involves alleged $330 million in commissions allegedly collected by this brokerage firm during the sale of BDL financial securities.
The case is now moving forward again, after more than two years of judicial limbo. After deciding not to take action against Salameh, following a hearing in early August 2023, former first investigating judge Charbel Abou Samra was the subject of an appeal filed by former State Litigation Department head Helene Iskandar, before Beirut's indictment chamber. On Aug. 29, 2023, Salameh filed a state liability claim against this chamber and other courts consecutively tasked with reviewing Iskandar's appeal, while the competent plenary assembly did not have the required quorum to issue a ruling.
To unblock the proceedings, the former head of the State Litigation Department chose to withdraw her appeal against Abou Samra in July 2024. The indictment chamber, this time presided over by Nassib Elia (whom Salameh had not sued), accepted the withdrawal on Oct. 8 of the same year and sent the file to the new investigating judge Bilal Halawi, Abi Samra's successor. This decision was upheld on appeal the following month by the chamber presided over by Souheir Harake.
Once in possession of the Forry case, Halaoui asked Salameh to provide written evidence of his withdrawal of the various appeals filed before the plenary assembly of the Court of Cassation against the indictment chambers, after Salameh had stated his intention to withdraw them.
In the absence of these documents, Judge Halawi, at a hearing held Dec. 12, 2024, decided not to set a new hearing date, considering, in his view, there was a risk the proceedings could be declared null and void.
Osman, appointed last July, took a different stance, believing she could resume the investigation. She has therefore summoned the former governor, along with his brother, Raja Salameh, who owned Forry Associates, and his former assistant, Marianne Hoyek.
