EU delegation set to open investigation into governor of Lebanon’s central bank

A view of Lebanon's Central Bank building in Beirut, Lebanon April 23, 2020. (REUTERS)
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Updated 06 January 2023
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EU delegation set to open investigation into governor of Lebanon’s central bank

  • Public prosecutor met diplomats from France, Germany and Luxembourg amid unease over implications for Lebanese sovereignty
  • 15 bankers, including current and former vice-governors of the central bank, are expected to be questioned during the investigation, which begins on Monday

BEIRUT: A judicial delegation from France, Germany and Luxembourg will open its investigation into the activities of Lebanon’s central bank and its governor, Riad Salameh, in Beirut on Monday. It is expected to continue until Friday.

Salameh is facing prosecution in cases relating to money transfers from Lebanon to banks in those European countries, the sources of the funds and the extent to which they might be linked to corruption, money laundering and financial crimes in Europe.

Arab News understands the Central Criminal Investigation Division affiliated with the Public Prosecution Office in Lebanon has informed those who have been called for questioning of the dates on which they are expected to attend the Justice Palace in Beirut, beginning early next week. They include 15 banking officials, including current and former vice-governors of the central bank. Salameh himself will not be questioned at this stage, a judicial source said.

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Fifteen bankers, including current and former vice-governors of the central bank, are expected to be questioned during the investigation, which begins on Monday.

In March 2022, European authorities froze $130 million of Lebanese assets, and targeted Salameh and four people close to him for investigation in relation to alleged embezzlement of public funds.

Judge Ghassan Oweidat, Lebanon’s public prosecutor, met on Thursday with a diplomatic delegation from the embassies of France, Germany and Luxembourg at the Justice Palace. The Lebanese judiciary has expressed disapproval of the way it is being treated in the case.

Lebanese authorities were officially informed by letter that a judicial delegation from the three European countries would be arriving in Lebanon to conduct their investigation. The delegation includes public prosecutors and specialist financial judges, who told Lebanese authorities about their visit in the letter without formally requesting authorization to conduct their investigation.

This was a strange and an unprecedented move, according to the judicial source, who also questioned what it means for the sovereignty and relevance of the Lebanese state if foreign countries can simply grant themselves the authority to conduct investigations on its soil.

He also said it was surprising that the representatives of the three European countries had only informed the Lebanese judiciary of the date of the delegation’s arrival in Beirut to conduct its investigation and the names of the individuals to be questioned, without requesting the judiciary’s assistance or cooperation. This undermines and violates the authority of the Lebanese judiciary, he added.

“The foreign judicial delegation doesn’t have the right to arrive in Lebanon and conduct investigations without a letter of request,” the source said.

“The Convention against Corruption signed by Lebanon requires it to meet the demands of foreign judicial authorities, provided that they comply with the Lebanese laws.”

Salameh has faced harsh criticism for his monetary policies and financial engineering operations, which have been blamed for contributing to the accumulation of debt and eventual collapse of Lebanon’s economy.

The French financial judiciary has been investigating him since 2021 on charges of money laundering and embezzlement. He has been governor of the central bank since 1993 and his term is set to end in May.

Switzerland has also been investigating allegations of embezzlement in the central bank, with Salameh and his brother the main suspects.

During their meeting, Judge Oweidat and the delegates went through the due process followed by Lebanon in such cases. The investigation will take place at the hall of the Court of Cassation at the Justice Palace in Beirut and the judicial source said Oweidat and the delegates agreed a protocol to be followed during the investigation. It requires investigators to direct their questions to witnesses through Lebanese judges who will be present during the sessions, rather then directly to the individuals being questioned, who have the right to have lawyers present.

“If the European judges want to make any claims, they should do so in their countries and not during the investigation sessions in Lebanon,” the judicial source said.

“After the claim, a refund request should be sent to Lebanon. What is certain is that no action can be taken against any Lebanese who was interrogated and investigated during the hearing.”

The source said the Lebanese judiciary cannot extradite any Lebanese citizen to any other country for prosecution in the case, even if there are signed conventions in place between the countries. Any prosecution of a Lebanese citizen will take place in Lebanese territory, similar to what happened in the case of Ziad Takieddine, he added.

Takieddine is a 72-year-old Lebanese-French businessman accused by the French judiciary of financial crimes. He was a key witness in an investigation into alleged Libyan financing of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2007 election campaign. He told French investigators in 2016 that he gave Sarkozy and his office manager €5 million ($5.3 million) to fund Sarkozy’s campaign. He was detained in Lebanon in 2020 and where he faced a French investigation but was tried by the Lebanese judiciary.

Similarly, in 2021 French investigators visited Lebanon to question Lebanese businessman Carlos Ghosn. Their questions were directed to a Lebanese judge who, in turn, put them to Ghosn.

The judicial source added: “The French know this protocol in Lebanon because they have experienced it before.”

 


WHO says no medical supplies received in Gaza for 10 days

Updated 4 sec ago
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WHO says no medical supplies received in Gaza for 10 days

GENEVA: The World Health Organization said Friday that it has received no medical supplies in the Gaza Strip for 10 days as Israel pursues a new offensive against Hamas.
Israel’s closure of the Rafah crossing into Gaza has caused “a difficult situation,” WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said. “The last medical supplies that we got in Gaza was before May 6.”
Israeli troops entered the city of Rafah on May 7 to extend their offensive against Hamas over the militant group’s attacks seven months earlier. They closed the Rafah crossing into Egypt that is crucial for humanitarian supplies.
With UN agencies warning of a growing risk of famine in Gaza, the Kerem Shalom and Erez crossings from Israel are also virtually shut down.
Jasarevic said the biggest concern was over fuel needed to keep clinics and hospitals running. Gaza’s health facilities need up to 1.8 million liters of fuel a month to keep operating.
The spokesman said only 159,000 liters had entered Rafah since the border closure. “This is clearly not sufficient,” he added, highlighting how only 13 out of 36 hospitals across the Palestinian territory were now “partially” operating.
“Hospitals still functioning are running out of fuel, and that puts so many lives at danger,” said Jasarevic. “Current military operations in Rafah are putting countless lives at risk.”
The Hamas attack on October 7 resulted in the death of more than 1,170 people in Israel, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. Out of 252 people taken hostage, 128 are still held inside Gaza, but the army says 38 have died.
More than 35,300 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the Palestinian territory since the war broke out, according to data provided by the health ministry of Hamas-run Gaza.


Hezbollah uses new weapons in Israel attacks

Updated 30 min ago
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Hezbollah uses new weapons in Israel attacks

  • The Israeli army said three soldiers were wounded in an attack on Thursday
  • Hezbollah has a large arsenal of weapons, that it has expanded significantly in recent years

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s powerful armed group Hezbollah announced on Thursday it had used a drone capable of firing rockets at a military position in one of its latest attacks in northern Israel.
Israel and Hezbollah have been involved in near-daily exchanges of fire since the war between Israel and Hamas broke out on October 7.
Hezbollah announced it had used an “armed attack drone” equipped with two S-5 rockets on a military position in Metula in northern Israel.
The Iran-backed group published a video showing the drone heading toward the position, where tanks were stationed, with the footage showing the moment the two rockets were released followed by the drone exploding.
It was the first time they had announced the use of this type of weapon since the cross-border exchanges with Israel erupted in October.
The Israeli army said three soldiers were wounded in Thursday’s attack.
Hezbollah-affiliated media said that the drone’s warhead consisted of between 25 and 30 kilogrammes (55 and 66 pounds) of high explosive.
Military analyst Khalil Helou told AFP that the use of drones offers Hezbollah the ability to launch the attack from within Israeli territory, as they can fly at low altitudes, evading detection by radar.
Hezbollah also announced on Wednesday that it had launched a strike using “attack drones” on a base west of the northern Israeli town of Tiberias.
That attack was the group’s deepest into Israeli territory since fighting flared, analysts said.
In recent weeks, the Lebanese militant group has announced attacks that it has described as “complex,” using attack drones and missiles to hit military positions, as well as troops and vehicles.
It has also used guided and heavy missiles, such as Iran’s Burkan and Almas missiles, as well as the Jihad Mughniyeh missile, named after a Hezbollah leader killed by Israeli fire in Syria in 2015.
Helou, a retired general, said that depite its new weaponry, Hezbollah still relied primarily on Kornet anti-tank missiles with a range of just five to eight kilometers.
They also use the Konkurs anti-tank missile, which can penetrate Israel’s Iron Dome defense system.
Hezbollah has a large arsenal of weapons, that it has expanded significantly in recent years.
The group has said repeatedly that it has advanced weapons capable of striking deep inside Israeli territory.
Analysts have described the skirmishes between Israel and Hamas as a war of “attrition,” in which each side is testing the other, as well as their own tactics.
Hezbollah has expanded the range of its attacks in response to strikes targeting its munitions and infrastructure, or its military commanders.
One such Israeli strike on Wednesday targeted the village of Brital in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley, with the Israeli army later announcing it had hit a “terror target related to Hezbollah’s precision missile project.”
Helou said Hezbollah’s targeting of the base near Tiberias and its use of the rocket-equipped drone “can be interpreted as a response to the attack on Brital, but it remains a shy response compared to the group’s capabilities.”
He suggested that the Israeli strike likely hit a depot for Iranian missiles that had not yet been used by Hezbollah.
“Hezbollah does not wish to expand the circle of the conflict,” Helou said.
“What is happening is a war of attrition through which it is trying to distract the Israeli army” from Gaza and seeking to prevent it from “launching a wide-ranging attack on Lebanon.”


US officials held indirect talks with Iran on avoiding regional escalation: report

Updated 18 May 2024
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US officials held indirect talks with Iran on avoiding regional escalation: report

Two top Biden administration officials held indirect talks with Iranian counterparts this week in an effort to avoid escalating regional attacks, Axios reported on Friday.
The conversations marked the first round of discussions between the US and Iran since January, according to Axios.


One Palestinian killed, eight wounded in Israeli strike on West Bank refugee camp

Updated 18 May 2024
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One Palestinian killed, eight wounded in Israeli strike on West Bank refugee camp

  • Israel has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry

RAMALLAH, West Bank: At least one person was killed and eight wounded on Friday in an Israeli air strike on the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry and Israeli military said.
The Palestinian health ministry said the eight wounded people were in stable condition and receiving treatment at hospitals. Reuters could not immediately confirm their identities.
The Israeli military said a fighter jet conducted the strike, a rarity in the West Bank, where violence had been surging long before the Gaza war.
Residents of the refugee camp said a house was targeted.
The West Bank is among territories Israel occupied in a 1967 Middle East war. Palestinians want it to be the core of an independent Palestinian state.

 

 


Trapped US doctors are out of Gaza, White House says

Updated 18 May 2024
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Trapped US doctors are out of Gaza, White House says

  • The Palestinian American Medical Association, a US-based non-profit, reported that its team of 19 health care professionals, including 10 Americans, had been denied exit from Gaza after their two-week mission
  • Israel has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory

WASHINGTON: A group of US medical workers left the Gaza Strip after getting stuck at the hospital where they were providing care, the White House said on Friday.
Reports emerged earlier this week of American doctors being unable to leave Gaza after Israel closed the Rafah border crossing, including 10 from the US-based Palestinian American Medical Association, who had intended to leave after a two-week mission at the European Hospital in Khan Younis, a city near Rafah in southern Gaza.
On Friday, 17 American doctors and health care workers, out of a total of 20, got out of Gaza, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters.
“I can assure you that any of them that wanted to leave are out,” Kirby said.
A State Department spokesperson told Reuters that some of the doctors that had been stuck made their way to safety with assistance from the US Embassy in Jerusalem.
Three of the US doctors chose not to depart Gaza, a source familiar with the situation said, adding that the doctors who stayed behind understood that the US Embassy may not be able to facilitate their departure as it did on Friday.
The Palestinian American Medical Association, a US-based non-profit, reported that its team of 19 health care professionals, including 10 Americans, had been denied exit from Gaza after their two-week mission.
The organization said on social media on Wednesday that it had a more doctors waiting to enter Gaza to replace the workers trying to leave.
Israel seized and closed the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt on May 7, disrupting a vital route for people and aid into and out of the devastated enclave.
Gaza’s health care system has essentially collapsed since Israel began its military offensive there after the Oct. 7 cross-border attacks by Palestinian Hamas militants on Israelis.
Aid deliveries began arriving at a US-built pier off the Gaza Strip on Friday.