There is no doubt that the case of Banque du Liban Governor Riad Salameh and the information recently published constitute conclusive evidence of the latter’s involvement in embezzlement and money laundering crimes, to the extent that one of the country’s major judicial references can hardly believe that the Lebanese judiciary is still watching this file, and even not He reaches the allegation against him, despite the large number of evidence that began to come out in the open…
Last January, the Swiss judiciary sent a correspondence to the Lebanese judiciary in which he talked about the embezzlement of Salameh and his brother Raja of money, that is, according to the law, he talks about the theft of public money. Harmful to the Banque du Liban by signing a contract submitted by FORRY ASSOCIATED LTD in the British Virgin Islands, and it appears that the money was transferred to accounts in Switzerland before it was laundered in various ways, including transfers from one account to another with changing the owner of the economic right or investments in real estate in Switzerland and abroad , especially Britain, or investments in financial bonds in Switzerland or abroad… Why come back to this point?
A judicial reference familiar with the investigation file in the Riad Salameh case returns to the documents and the movement of accounts that were recently published by Salameh, and indicates that “the latter was working in the following way: the money goes out from the Banque du Liban to the Forry company he owns, and Raja then returns the money to his accounts to be transferred to his accounts. Riad Salameh, who buys real estate in it.
The judicial reference indicates that the investigations in Europe are advanced, but within the framework of the Lebanese-European judicial cooperation, the Europeans need more evidence that they do not possess and they are requesting from the Lebanese judiciary, specifically the movement of the accounts of the Governor of the Banque du Liban to determine how the funds arrived, i.e. $ 300 million (which he talked about). The Swiss judiciary in its correspondence in January 2020) to Lebanon and returned and left the Lebanese banks, and how did this process take place? And where did the money go? He stressed that “this is the “hidden thread” that the European judiciary is waiting to determine and has not yet been able to.”
“The story between the Lebanese judiciary and European countries is related to the movement of Riad Salameh’s accounts.” This is confirmed by the reference, pointing out that “the Lebanese judiciary has not handed over to the European judiciary anything related to this issue and this is their basic demand, and today with the suspension of the General Assembly, work on the Salameh file has been stopped, and asks what prevents the highest judicial authority in Lebanon from moving?”
“Is it reasonable for the work of the courts to be disrupted as a result of the fatwa of the presence of genuine judges only without the law stipulating it? What is the purpose of disrupting the work of the courts and stopping a file the size of Salameh’s file?”
“There is no investigation into the safety file in Lebanon.” This is how the judicial authority summarizes the scene, to go further, and says, “The Lebanese judiciary did not even resort to a prosecution, even though the investigation ended about three months ago, and today, in order not to claim Judge Ziad Abi Haidar, Salameh resorted to a request to stop the hand, and the courts are suspended as a result of disrupting the work of the commission.” The public, and all of this affects the Lebanese-European cooperation, because then the Lebanese judiciary cannot hand over to the European judiciary what it requests as a result of the suspension of the courts.”
In conclusion, the Lebanese judiciary stands at a crossroads. Will Europe obtain the movement of Riad Salameh’s accounts that it requests?!.