2023-05-16 14:51:54
The French judge issued the charge Investigating the funds and properties of the Governor of the Banque du Liban Central European Riad Salameh issued an international arrest warrant against him on Tuesday, after he was absent from his interrogation session before it in Paris, according to a source familiar with the file.
Salameh did not attend an interrogation session in Paris on Tuesday to find out how he had accumulated large assets in Europe, according to his lawyer.
French investigators suspect that Salameh accumulated real estate and banking assets through a complex fraudulent financial scheme and misused Lebanese public funds on a large scale.
His appearance before Judge Aude Borezi on Tuesday was likely to lead to charges against him.
For his part, his lawyer, Pierre-Olivier Sur, said that his client’s absence on Tuesday was due to his failure to inform him of the obligation to appear before the French judiciary in accordance with the rules.
A Lebanese legal source indicated this week that the authorities failed to notify Salameh of the summons, despite the police trying four times to deliver the notice to Salameh at the Central Bank headquarters.
After Riad Salameh was absent on Tuesday, the judge in charge of the case had the option of issuing a new summons, but decided to issue an international arrest warrant against him. Salameh, 72, rejects the charges against him.
Since the beginning of the year, judges from European countries have visited Lebanon on three occasions to meet the governor of the Central Bank and people close to him. At least two people have been charged in connection with the case in France.
Later this month, the Court of Appeal in Paris will consider the legality of the European Union’s seizure of some of Salameh’s assets.
For his part, French lawyer William Bourdon, who represents two associations among the plaintiffs against Salameh, said that he “will be arrested one day or another.”
Bourdon added that Salameh is benefiting from “a systematic obstruction by some Lebanese judges, in complete contradiction with their obligations.”
Salameh, who has held the position of governor of the Banque du Liban for three decades, is also under investigation in Lebanon, France and at least four other European countries over accusations of stealing hundreds of millions of dollars and laundering some of the proceeds abroad.
Statement data shows how Salameh’s accounts at Mawarid Bank swelled from $15m in 1993 to more than $150m by 2019.
Lebanese prosecutors suspect that the accounts from which regular cash withdrawals were made were used to conceal money laundering activity.
Salama denied, through lawyers, using his accounts at Al-Mawarid Bank for money laundering, saying that the interest on deposits explains the reason for the increase in his savings.
France 24/AFP
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