A prominent expected development in the case of the Governor of the Banque du Liban, Riad Salameh, was represented in information confirming that the Attorney General, Judge Raja Hamoush, will officially take charge of the prosecution against the ruler and whoever appears in the investigation into the crime of embezzlement of public money and money laundering. According to Al-Akhbar information, Hamoush, who is the highest-ranking and eldest after Judge Ziyad Abu Haidar, who was removed from the file, will be obligated to implement the decision of his boss, the Public Prosecutor Ghassan Oweidat, to claim Salama according to the file prepared by Judge Jean Tannous last May.
Procedurally, Bahmoush is supposed to carry out the prosecution and refer the file directly to the investigating judge, but he did not know if he could amend the attached file and change the nature of the prosecution, which would have repercussions, especially since transferring the file to a Lebanese investigative judge would open the door to different dealings with European requests for judicial cooperation. , because the investigating judge can freeze cooperation with the Europeans until the completion of the review of the file, and delay any cooperation until the completion of his work.
Another matter that is supposed to be a main title in the work of the investigating judge is related to the status of the Governor of the Banque du Liban, as he can, at the request of the Lebanese state, appoint a judicial guard over the Banque du Liban to preserve evidence, and thus prevent the ruler and his team from carrying out any business in the bank until the concerned authorities intend to appoint a replacement. . And the issue of the judicial guard has come to the fore in light of the information about a decision by Amal and Hezbollah to ask the first deputy ruler, Wassim Mansouri, to resign in the event that Salameh is removed without a substitute for him, which opens the way for the appointment of a judicial guard because there is no provision in the Monetary and Credit Law that specifies the identity of who He assumes the duties of the ruler after the positions of the ruler and his first deputy become vacant.
Investigations and a business lunch
In addition, European investigations in Lebanon continued yesterday with banking officials, while disturbing indications emerged about French interference that went beyond the judicial dimension in the Beirut port bombing file. Especially since the French judicial delegation working on the port file came in an ambiguous form, and those concerned in Paris and Beirut tried to cover up its existence by “dissolving” it within the European judicial and criminal delegation investigating Salameh’s file.
Yesterday, the European judicial delegation listened to the former First Deputy Governor of the Banque du Liban, Raed Charafeddine, and the official in charge of cutting operations at the Banque du Liban, Noman Ndour, and today it will hear the General Manager of Bank Audi Samir Hanna, and tomorrow, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bank of the Mediterranean, Raya Al-Hassan, with others to be heard this week. next.
According to the information, the foreign delegations distribute the tasks. The German side focuses on examining the papers of the ruler’s file with the Public Prosecution Office at the Court of Cassation. The delegation met Hamoush several times and looked at the details of the file, and the Germans tried to obtain a complete copy of the file. Some investigators even carried a CT scan camera with them that allows a quick photocopy of all the papers in the file, but Judge Hamoush recalled that the agreement requires viewing and recording notes to be sent later. A request to the Public Prosecutor, Ghassan Oweidat, to specify the documents that the delegation wants copies of, provided that the decision rests with Lebanon. The German side tried to deceive and exert pressure through contacts made by the German ambassador to Lebanon, Andreas Kindl, speaking in a superficial language and trying to impose orders and hide behind international agreements to say that his country’s delegation has the right to take a copy of the entire file, knowing that the German delegation, which includes a team from the Public Prosecution in Munich, is working on Verification of certain financial transfers through which real estate was bought and sold in Germany, which does not require obtaining all the papers in the file.
On the other hand, a joint delegation from France, Germany and Luxembourg is responsible for listening to banking, administrative and public officials, and that the French investigating judge, Aud Burcy, who issued a decision to seize Salama’s property, is the one who leads the direct investigations and directs questions through Judge Mirna Clas, while the rest of the members write down the answers. According to the data, the questions of the European delegation are mostly identical to the questions previously addressed to the same persons by Judge Jean Tannous. It appears from the questions that the French side had previously seen the details of the Lebanese investigations, which is unjustified because it was not conducted in an official manner, which was evident from the repetition of some questions to confirm the statements of the listeners, as if there is a questioning of the Lebanese investigations. It was also found that the European delegation possesses private documents issued by the Banque du Liban, which it tried to suggest were not among the papers of the Lebanese investigation.
Although the European team is repeatedly trying to obtain a full copy of Raja Salama’s account statements that the banks handed over to the judiciary, the investigations show a European tendency to identify details that go beyond the case itself. When Lebanese judges from the European side inquired about the mission and its nature, the French replied that the aim was to obtain data on European banks or personalities. Note that Lebanon had previously informed the European side of laundering operations that took place through European banks and personalities, while the European judiciary did not inform its Lebanese counterpart of the investigations it conducted with these people, and Lebanon did not obtain a copy of the file, unlike what is happening with the Lebanese judiciary.
It is noteworthy that the European investigators were not satisfied with the official sessions, as it became clear that after completing the listening to the former deputy governor of the Banque du Liban, Saad Al-Andari, some members of the team invited him to lunch, which is surprising and outside the mission of the delegation, which raised suspicions about other goals other than the investigation file with Salameh. .
American pressure in Congress and the State
After the American ambassador in Beirut, Dorothy Shea, asked to decide the fate of the port security official, Muhammad Ziyad Al-Auf, who holds American citizenship, after his family put pressure on members of the US Congress to intervene for his release, members of Congress resorted to moving an American parliamentary committee dealing with American hostages outside the United States. , to deal with the issue of al-Auf as a hostage. Members Daryl Issa, Darren Lahoud, and Debbie Dingell of the American-Lebanese Friendship Committee sent a letter to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, urging the administration to “help end the stalemate (surrounding the issue) by using additional diplomatic tools to hold accountable those who continue to obstruct the democratic process.” In Lebanon,” the letter called for “the need to support the (Lebanese) state and the independence of the judiciary outside the malicious influence of a third party.
Belgian Parliament: Recommendation of sanctions
Yesterday, the Foreign Affairs Committee (representing all parties) in the Belgian Parliament voted unanimously on a draft resolution submitted by Belgian MP Malek Ben Achour regarding financial crimes and fighting corruption in Lebanon. The decision, which mentioned in the compelling reasons the Governor of the Banque du Liban, Riad Salameh, and supported the investigation into the port explosion, recommended that the Belgian government prepare a list of persons prosecuted in financial corruption cases in Lebanon and Europe and apply Belgian and European sanctions against them. The European Observatory of Integrity in Lebanon stated, “The decision is a precedent and has the value of law.” After the session, Ben Achour considered that “the systematic theft of Lebanese money by a financial political class must stop.” He stressed that the decision paves the way for European sanctions against the perpetrators and opens the door to imposing sanctions on persons prosecuted on charges of corruption in Lebanon and Europe.
