Qabalan questions Salameh over German arrest warrant

Attorney General Judge Imad Qabalan on Wednesday heard the testimony of Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh over the German arrest warrant that has been issued for him on charges of falsification and money laundering.

At the end of the session, Qabalan decided to release Salameh pending further investigations and to ban him from travel while keeping his two passports confiscated.

He also asked the German judiciary to provide him with Salameh’s extradition file.

A German delegation had visited the Lebanese’s judiciary headquarters in Beirut last week and handed over five arrest warrants issued in Germany for Salameh and four others, officials told the Associated Press. They did not reveal the name of the four others.

A Lebanese judge has banned Salameh from traveling, days after Beirut received an Interpol red notice following a French arrest warrant.

The judge questioned Salameh on Wednesday and "decided to release him pending investigation, ban him from traveling, and confiscate his Lebanese and French passports," an official told AFP.

Salameh, Lebanon's long-serving central bank chief, has been the target of a series of judicial investigations both at home and abroad on allegations including fraud, money laundering and illicit enrichment.

The Lebanese judge also asked the French judiciary to refer Salameh's file to Beirut in order to "determine whether the Lebanese judiciary will prosecute him for the crimes he is accused of in France or not," the official added.

Interpol circulated the red notice after a French magistrate issued a warrant for Salameh, who failed to appear for questioning in Paris before investigators probing his sizable assets across Europe.

An Interpol red notice is not an international arrest warrant but asks authorities worldwide to provisionally detain people pending possible extradition or other legal actions.

Lebanon does not extradite its nationals.