Lebanon's ex-central bank chief Salameh to remain detained amid investigation
A Lebanese judge ruled Monday that the country's former central bank chief Riad Salameh will remain in jail while facing charges of embezzling tens of millions of dollars from state offices. Salameh is widely seen as a key culprit in Lebanon's economic crash, which the World Bank has called one of the worst in recent history.
A Lebanese judge Monday issued an arrest warrant for ex-central bank chief Riad Salameh, a judicial official said, after the embattled former governor was questioned in an embezzlement case.
Salameh, 74, who headed the central bank for three decades, faces numerous charges including embezzlement, money laundering and tax evasion in separate probes in crisis-hit Lebanon and abroad.
The most senior Lebanese figure to be arrested in the wake of the country's dramatic economic collapse in 2019, Salameh has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
The investigating judge questioned Salameh for two and a half hours and "issued an arrest warrant against him", the official told AFP, requesting anonymity as they were not authorised to brief the media.
The judge scheduled another hearing Thursday to continue questioning Salameh, the official said.
On Tuesday last week, Lebanese authorities for the first time provisionally arrested Salameh after questioning over the alleged embezzlement of more than $40 million, another judicial had told AFP.
The official said at the time that the case was "completely separate" from others being investigated.
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