DAHER AL SAWAN, Lebanon: Lebanon’s longtime former central bank chief, who is widely blamed for the country’s economic meltdown, was released on bail of $14 million Friday after a year in jail awaiting trial on corruption charges.
Riad Salameh ended his 30-year term as central bank governor in 2023 under a cloud, with several European countries probing allegations of financial crimes.
Many in Lebanon hold him responsible for the crippling financial crisis that has gripped the country since late 2019, during which depositors lost their life savings as the value of the currency collapsed.
Salameh became the central bank chief in 1993 and initially was celebrated for his role in steering Lebanon’s economic recovery after a 15-year civil war, and for keeping the economy on an even keel during long spells of political gridlock and turmoil.
He is now facing several criminal cases, both locally and internationally.
Last September, Lebanon charged Salameh with the embezzlement of $42 million, later adding charges of illicit enrichment over an apartment that was rented in France, supposedly to be a substitute office for the central bank if needed. Officials said Salameh had rented from his former romantic partner for about $500,000 annually.
While in detention, the 75-year-old former bank chief’s health declined, and he was in a hospital outside of Beirut prior to his release on Friday.
The court denied a request by Salameh to be released without bail, setting the bail amount at $14 million. It also imposed a travel ban on him.
After Salameh posted the amount, investigators questioned him about the source of the funds and asked him for documents to prove that they were not the proceeds of illicit activities.
Salameh’s lawyer, Marc Habka, told journalists that his client was in poor health, and that “we have presented to the court all the evidence” to prove his innocence.
“It’s the right of the Lebanese people to know, in the end,” he said. “If Riad Salameh is involved (in the alleged crimes), he will be convicted. If other people are involved, they will be convicted, and if he is innocent, he will be acquitted.”
Lebanon’s ex-central bank chief accused of corruption released on $14m bail
https://arab.news/7653y
Lebanon’s ex-central bank chief accused of corruption released on $14m bail
- Salameh ended his 30-year term as central bank governor in 2023 under a cloud, with several European countries probing allegations of financial crimes
- The court denied a request by Salameh to be released without bail, setting the bail amount at $14 million
Trump says Iran government change ‘best thing that could happen’
- US president's comments come after he ordered a second aircraft carrier to head to the Middle East
FORT BRAGG, United States: US President Donald Trump said a change of government in Iran would be the “best thing that could happen,” as he ordered a second aircraft carrier to head to the Middle East.
“Seems like that would be the best thing that could happen,” Trump told reporters at the Fort Bragg military base in North Carolina when a journalist asked if he wanted “regime change” in Iran.
“For 47 years, they’ve been talking and talking and talking. In the meantime, we’ve lost a lot of lives while they talk,” he told reporters.
Trump declined to say who he would want to take over in Iran from supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, but he added that “there are people.”
He has previously backed off full-throated calls for a change of government in Iran, warning that it could cause chaos, although he has made threats toward Khamenei in the past.
Speaking earlier at the White House, Trump said that the USS Gerald R. Ford — the world’s largest warship — would be “leaving very soon” for the Middle East to up the pressure on Iran.
“In case we don’t make a deal, we’ll need it,” Trump said.
The giant vessel is currently in the Caribbean following the US overthrow of Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro. Another carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, is one of 12 US ships already in the Middle East.
When Iran began its crackdown on protests last month — which rights groups say killed thousands — Trump initially said that the United States was “locked and loaded” to help demonstrators.
But he has recently focused his military threats on Tehran’s nuclear program, which US forces struck last July during Israel’s unprecedented 12-day war with Iran.
The protests have subsided for now but US-based Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran’s last shah, urged international intervention to support the Iranian people.
“We are asking for a humanitarian intervention to prevent more innocent lives being killed in the process,” he told the Munich Security Conference.
It followed a call by the opposition leader, who has not returned to his country since before the revolution, for Iranians at home and abroad to continue demonstrations this weekend.
Iran and the United States, who have had no diplomatic relations since shortly after the revolution, held talks on the nuclear issue last week in Oman. No dates have been set for new talks yet.
The West fears the program is aimed at making a bomb, which Tehran denies.
The head of the UN nuclear watchdog, Rafael Grossi, said Friday that reaching an accord with Iran on inspections of its processing facilities was possible but “terribly difficult.”
Trump said after talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this week that he wanted to continue talks with Iran, defying pressure from his key ally for a tougher stance.
The Israeli prime minister himself expressed skepticism at the quality of any agreement if it didn’t also cover Iran’s ballistic missiles and support for regional proxies.
According to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, 7,008 people, mostly protesters, were killed in the recent crackdown, although rights groups warn the toll is likely far higher.
More than 53,000 people have also been arrested, it added.
The Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) NGO said “hundreds” of people were facing charges linked to the protests that could see them sentenced to death.
Figures working within the Iranian system have also been arrested, with three politicians detained this week from the so-called reformist wing of Iranian politics supportive of President Masoud Pezeshkian.
The three — Azar Mansouri, Javad Emam and Ebrahim Asgharzadeh — were released on bail Thursday and Friday, their lawyer Hojjat Kermani told the ISNA news agency.
