BEIRUT — A
Lebanese prosecutor on Tuesday issued a travel ban against
central bank chief Riad Salameh over a lawsuit accusing him of financial misconduct, a judicial
source told AFP.
اضافة اعلان
Salameh is among the top Lebanese officials
widely blamed for an unprecedented financial crisis that the
World Bank says is
of a scale usually associated with wars.
He is the target of a series of judicial
investigations both at home and abroad on suspicion of fraud, money laundering
and illicit enrichment, among other allegations.
On Tuesday, Mount Lebanon public prosecutor
“Judge Ghada Aoun issued a travel ban against him,” said the judicial source.
“The decision came after she questioned a
number of senior central bank employees,” the source added.
The travel ban is pursuant to a lawsuit filed
by an activist group against Salameh over alleged financial misconduct,
according to the source.
Aoun has summoned Salameh for questioning
over the case but the exact date of the session has yet to be publicly
disclosed, the source added.
Lebanon opened a local probe into Salameh’s
wealth last year, after the Swiss attorney general requested assistance in an
investigation into more than $300 million which Salameh allegedly embezzled out
of the central bank with the help of his brother, Raja.
Salameh has repeatedly denied the charge.
Earlier on Tuesday, prosecutor Jean Tannous,
accompanied by security forces, visited a number of commercial banks to demand
bank statements relating to Salameh’s brother as part of the investigation.
But “the banks rejected his request under the
pretext that it violates banking secrecy laws,” the judicial source said.
Salameh, one of the world’s longest-serving
central bank governors, has long downplayed the accusations levied against him
as unfounded and lacking in evidence.
In November, Salameh said that a report filed
by an audit firm he had hired showed that no public funds were used to pay fees
for a company owned by his brother.
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