Lebanon central bank head Riad Salameh appears at corruption hearing

Beirut — Lebanon’s central bank governor Riad Salameh was questioned in Beirut on Thursday in a hearing attended by European officials visiting the country as part of their probe into whether he embezzled vast sums of public funds, three sources said.

The 72-year-old governor, whose 30-year tenure at the bank is to end this summer, was interrogated for nearly six hours by a Lebanese judge relaying questions submitted by French and German officials, a judicial official said.

He had missed an earlier session on Wednesday after his lawyer objected to the foreign investigators' presence. The judicial official and another source familiar with proceedings said the hearing would continue on Friday morning.

Salameh is being investigated alongside his brother Raja in Lebanon and in at least five European countries over accusations of stealing hundreds of millions of dollars over more than a decade and laundering some of the proceeds abroad.

They both deny wrongdoing. The governor says the accusations are part of an attempt to scapegoat him for the financial meltdown ravaging Lebanon since 2019.

Raja was meant to appear in front of a Lebanese judge on Friday, also with European investigators present but it was unclear if his session would be postponed given the governor's hearing would continue.

A convoy of black cars was seen departing Lebanon's justice palace after Salameh’s Thursday hearing. No protesters were seen, though demonstrations have taken place outside the central bank in recent months against Salameh and his policies.

Salameh for decades enjoyed strong backing from Lebanese political and financial elites as he financed a state rife with corruption and enforced policies that earned commercial banks massive profits.

But he has faced increased scrutiny since a 2019 financial crisis resulting from decades of profligate spending, corruption and unsustainable policies by Lebanon’s leaders.

The judge presiding over the main Lebanese probe into Salameh said Lebanon would reschedule hearings for its own probe into Salameh as soon as it had finished with requests submitted by the Europeans.

Lebanon has taken steps to freeze the Salameh brothers’ assets as part of a separate probe into the governor.

Last year, prosecutors in Germany said Salameh was a suspect in a case that led to the freezing of about €120m  of Lebanese assets abroad.

As probes have converged, some of his long-time allies have viewed him as a burden and have moved to distance themselves from him, according to political sources who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the subject.

Salameh’s has said he would leave the bank at the end of his sixth term in July — a move that would mark a milestone in the crisis. A successor has not yet emerged.

Reuters