Lawsuit freezes Lebanese investigations into Riad Salameh

Prosecutors in Beirut decided not to arrest the former governor of the Banque Du Liban, Riad Salameh, after a dispute was filed by his attorney on Tuesday.

The Indictment Division communicated its decision to the head of the Cases Authority at the Ministry of Justice, Judge Helena Iskandar, having accepted the appeal submitted by the judge against leaving Salameh under investigation after he was questioned a few weeks ago.

Charbel Abu Samra, the first investigative judge in Beirut, left Salameh under investigation last month after accusations were made against him, his brother Raja Salameh and former aide Marianne Hoayek over “embezzlement of public money, money laundering, forgery, the use of counterfeiting, illegal enrichment, violation of employment law, and tax evasion.”

Hafez Zakhour, Salameh’s attorney, appeared before the indictment committee and announced that his client “will not attend the session held by the Division to decide whether or not to arrest him.”

Instead, Zakhour filed a lawsuit against the Indictment Division, saying Salameh was being “investigated for alleged and unrealistic crimes.”

He continued: “The Indictment Division, as an appellate reference for the decisions of the investigating judge, is not entitled to take over the file and invite the defendant to a session before it in order to interrogate him or expand the investigation with him. The Indictment Division’s decision can be considered null and void. The Division cannot interrogate a defendant who is still undergoing interrogation before the investigative judge (Samra). Otherwise, we would be before two judicial authorities who interrogate the same defendant in the same case before one of them decides the fate of arresting or leaving the defendant.”

A judicial source told Arab News the Salameh investigation has been frozen in a manner similar to how the Beirut Port explosion investigation was frustrated and halted.

“Salameh is still a suspect in the Lebanese investigations, despite the accusation against him, until an indictment is issued that may make him an accused (party),” the source said.

“What is happening in this file is similar to what happened in the file of investigations into the crime of the Beirut Port explosion, which was also frozen a year ago due to the lawsuits filed against the judicial investigator in the crime, Judge Tarek Bitar, by several ministers and MPs, who were defendants in the investigation.”

Salameh’s mandate as governor of the BDL expired at the end of July, and security services have not been able to notify him since then of dates for his questioning sessions, under the pretext of not being able to find his place of residence in Lebanon.

The Lebanese judiciary confiscated Salameh’s Lebanese and French passports and prevented him from traveling on May 24, the day after authorities received a red notice from Interpol based on French and German arrest warrants against him.

Salameh is facing European investigations on charges of corruption, forgery, the formation of a gang for money laundering, and embezzlement of public funds in Lebanon worth more than $330 million between 2002 and 2021.

A year ago, France, Germany and Luxembourg froze €120 million euros ($129.88 million) of Lebanese assets following an investigation targeting Salameh and those close to him on charges of money laundering.