Judge Ghada Aoun, Lebanon’s state prosecutor, extended indefinitely a subpoena issued earlier this month for Banque du Liban Governor Riad Salameh following his failure to attend at a hearing.
Salameh has been sought as a witness in various instances claiming financial misconduct by Aoun.
The subpoena is in connection with a criminal complaint filed against Salameh by an organization calling itself “The People Want to Reform the System,” which accuses the governor of “illegal enrichment,” “money laundering,” and “waste of public money.”
Internal Security Forces members blocked admission to Lebanese State Security personnel dispatched to the central bank’s headquarters in Ras Beirut and to Salameh’s house in Rabieh.
It was Aoun’s fourth hearing, as a member of the Free Patriotic Movement, to interrogate Salameh, who did not appear on the pretense of having already filed a request to have Aoun removed from the case.
Salameh’s nearly three decades as central bank governor have come under heightened scrutiny in the aftermath of the country’s financial collapse in 2019.
Salameh is being investigated in Lebanon and other European countries, including Switzerland, for alleged money laundering and embezzlement at the BDL – claims he has constantly rejected.
