A Lebanese court issued a travel restriction on Banque du Liban Governor Riad Salameh on Tuesday, as the once-vaunted custodian of the country’s economy faces inquiries for financial misconduct at home and abroad.
“He is slated for interrogation on Thursday, based on the clear evidence we have,” Salameh’s investigator, Judge Ghada Aoun, announced. “There is critical information that we need to check throughout the interrogation.”
Earlier today, the court questioned top staff in the Lebanese central bank. The prohibition took immediate effect.
Salameh’s travel restriction was requested earlier Tuesday by lawyers for an activist organization named “The People Demand the Reform of the Regime.”
Salameh is charged with a number of financial offenses, including illicit enrichment, money laundering, embezzlement, and squandering public funds, according to Haitham Ezzo, one of the group’s attorneys.
Salameh leased a tiny apartment on the Champs-Élysées in Paris through Lebanon’s state bank, Ezzo said.
“He is gaining directly from the discrepancy,” Ezzo said.
Salameh, formerly lauded for his financial acumen, is blamed by many in Lebanon for the country’s financial collapse, which left the country’s banks mostly bankrupt and wiped away the life savings of many Lebanese.
