...Governor of Lebanon'scentral bank, Banque du Liban since April 1993. Salameh was appointed Governor by decree, approved by the Council of Ministers for a renewable term of six years. He was reappointed for four consecutive terms; in 1999, 2005, 2011 and 2017. Salameh chairs the Banque du Liban Central Council, the Higher Banking Commission, the AML/CFT Special Investigation Commission and the Capital Markets Authority. Salameh is a member of the board of governors at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and at the Arab Monetary Fund (AMF). Salameh is the longest-serving central bank governor in the world....
's interrogation session was postponed to Thursday, after he failed to appear Wednesday before visiting European Sherlocks, part of a multinational probe into his personal wealth.
The European delegation — with representatives from La Belle France, Germany, and Luxembourg — spent about two hours at Beirut’s Justice Palace waiting for Salameh.
Salameh's lawyer affirmed that Salameh will attend Thursday's session, after the public prosecution refused a petition he had submitted and scheduled a new session for Thursday.
The petition considered the presence of foreign Sherlocks at Salameh's hearing session "a flagrant violation of the illusory sovereignty of the judiciary," media reports said.
Also on Wednesday, Head of the lawsuit department at the Justice Ministry Judge Helena Iskandar sued Salameh, his brother Raja, and his assistant Marianne Hoayek, after having met earlier in the morning with the European legal team.
The embattled central bank chief faces embezzlement accusations in separate investigations in
...a formerly French, now an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. ...and abroad, looking into the fortune he has amassed in a country mired in financial crisis.
He had been summoned for questioning on Wednesday in the domestic case, but that session has been postponed to make way for the European Sherlocks.
The interrogation session that Salameh did not attend was scheduled at 10:00 am on Wednesday. For procedural reasons, Judge Charbel Abu Samra would have questioned Salameh in the presence of the European Sherlocks, acting as a go-between. Under Lebanese laws, they cannot directly question Salameh.
Salameh denies all accusations against him and has rarely appeared before the judiciary, despite numerous complaints and summonses.
La Belle France, Germany and Luxembourg in March last year seized assets worth 120 million euros ($130 million) in a move linked to a French probe into Salameh's personal wealth.