Former Economy Minister Amin Salam. (Credit: NNA, archive photo)
The Indictment Chamber, chaired by Kamal Nassar, ruled on Tuesday to release former Economy Minister Amin Salam, who has been in detention since last June for alleged corruption.
The release is subject to a LL 9 billion bail (approximately $100,000), which is currently being processed by Salam’s lawyer, Samer Hajj, according to L’Orient-Le Jour’s information. It is also conditioned on a six-month travel ban.
Salam had filed an appeal last Tuesday with the court presided over by Nassar against the previous refusal to release him, decided by Beirut’s First Investigative Judge, Roula Osman.
Salam is suspected of signing contracts with foreign companies for excessive amounts disproportionate to the services provided to the ministry and of using funds from the Insurance Companies’ Contribution Fund — under the ministry’s supervision — for personal purposes.
Salam denied these allegations and had told L’Orient-Le Jour in May that these funds “were allocated to paying ministry employees’ salaries” during the financial crisis that began in October 2019.
In March, the parliamentary Economy Committee, chaired by MP Farid Boustany, requested that Top Prosecutor Jamal Hajjar open a judicial investigation.
At the request of Economy Minister Amer Bisat, the Cases Authority also filed a complaint with Hajjar. The latter arrested him on June 11, before transferring the case to the financial prosecutor’s office, which initiated proceedings against him and subsequently referred the matter to former First Investigative Judge of Beirut, Bilal Halawi, who issued an arrest warrant on June 19.
As for Karim Salam, the former minister’s brother and associate, who is implicated in the case concerning the Insurance Companies’ Contribution Fund, he is awaiting a decision from Judge Osman, to whom he submitted a request for release on Dec. 9.
He will have to wait for the case file to be returned to Judge Osman, as it is currently before the Beirut Indictment Chamber, while his brother completes the bail payment process.
In 2023, the insurance company Al-Mashrek, represented by its general manager, George Matossian, filed against Karim Salam a complaint of wrongdoing involving the use of means deemed illegal to regularize the struggling company’s status with the Economy Ministry.
Karim Salam has been detained since April, after Matossian accused him of having received $100,000 in exchange for regularizing his company’s file. According to the investigation, Matossian had met with Amin Salam’s financial adviser, Fadi Tamim, who initially demanded $400,000 and later dropped the amount to $250,000.
While Tamim did not specify who had requested these sums, Matossian interpreted the demand as originating from the former minister and his brother, arguing that the documents and reports in Tamim’s possession could only have come from the ministry.
Tamim served nine months in prison, to which he had been sentenced by the Beirut Criminal Court in June 2024 for accepting bribes (Article 352 of the Penal Code). Questioned by the indictment chamber in May 2025, but this time as a witness, Tamim reiterated his statements that he had indeed asked Matossian for $250,000, but only as a fee for a study conducted on Al-Mashreq’s accounts.
At a hearing scheduled for Feb. 5, 2026, Tamim will once again be heard by the Criminal Court, also as a witness, alongside Matossian and a financial expert.
According to our information, Karim Salam’s lawyer had requested the summoning of the head of the central bank’s Special Investigation Commission (SIC), but the Criminal Court reportedly rejected the request.
The same court had previously requested that the SIC prepare a report on Karim Salam’s bank accounts, which revealed that these accounts included checks from insurance companies or their employees, cash deposits totaling several million dollars, and both domestic and international transfers, including one to an account belonging to his brother in the United States.
Karim Salam contested the findings of this analysis, maintaining that the funds in question were not linked to any illicit activities. He is scheduled to be questioned again at the Feb. 5 hearing.
This article was originally published in French in L’Orient-Le Jour. It was translated by Joelle El-Khoury.
