European legal team to return to Lebanon in March
A European judicial delegation from France, Germany, and Luxembourg will return to Lebanon in the first week of March, a judicial source said.
The source told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper, in remarks published Friday, that the judges will start to arrive in Lebanon starting March 5 and will question Central Bank governor Riad Salameh and other central bank employees and commercial banks heads.
The European legal team wrapped up last month the first round of questioning of Lebanese bankers and current and former Central Bank officials in Beirut, as part of a probe on money laundering linked to Salameh.
In March last year, authorities in France, Germany and Luxembourg froze more than $130 million in assets linked to the investigation.
There have been reports that a brokerage firm, Forry Associates Ltd., owned by Raja Salameh — the brother of the Central Bank governor — was hired by the Central Bank to handle government bond sales in which the firm received $330 million in commissions.
The governor, who has denied all charges of corruption, calling them politicized, said earlier that “not a single penny of public money” was used to pay the brokerage firm.
Meanwhile Judge Raja Hamoush has been tasked to look into the corruption case of Salameh, after the dismissal of Judge Ziad Abu Haidar.
After studying the file, Hamoush will decide whether to sue Salameh for illicit enrichment, embezzlement, forgery, and counterfeiting.
Source: Associated Press
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