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Lebanon Cenbank Governor Says He Will Appeal against French Arrest Warrant

Lebanon's Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh speaks during an interview for Reuters Next conference, in Beirut, Lebanon November 23, 2021. (Reuters)
Lebanon's Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh speaks during an interview for Reuters Next conference, in Beirut, Lebanon November 23, 2021. (Reuters)
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Lebanon Cenbank Governor Says He Will Appeal against French Arrest Warrant

Lebanon's Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh speaks during an interview for Reuters Next conference, in Beirut, Lebanon November 23, 2021. (Reuters)
Lebanon's Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh speaks during an interview for Reuters Next conference, in Beirut, Lebanon November 23, 2021. (Reuters)

French prosecutors have issued an arrest warrant for Lebanon's central bank governor Riad Salameh, a person familiar with the matter said on Tuesday, a move the governor said he would challenge through an appeal, calling it a violation of law.

The warrant was issued after Salameh failed to attend a hearing in Paris where prosecutors had been expected to press preliminary fraud and money laundering charges against him.

Salameh said in a statement he would appeal against the warrant. He accused the French investigative judge Aude Buresi of taking a decision based on "presumptuous ideas", saying "this is justice based on double standards".

The governor, alongside his brother and an assistant, are being investigated in Lebanon and at least five European countries for allegedly taking hundreds of millions of dollars from the central bank to the detriment of the state.

French prosecutors had set a hearing for him at 9:30 a.m. on May 16, according to court documents seen by Reuters. French prosecutors intend to press the preliminary charges and formally name him a suspect during that hearing.

Two sources with knowledge of his travel plans told Reuters on Tuesday that Salameh had remained in Beirut. Neither Salameh nor his lawyer in Lebanon responded to requests for comment from Reuters.

A French lawyer for Salameh said French prosecutors didn’t follow the rules upon summoning the central bank governor to France.

"By having notified the summons less than 10 days before the scheduled date of the interrogation, the rules were not respected," the lawyer, Pierre-Olivier Sur, told Reuters. "The summons is therefore null and void."

The office of French prosecutors didn't respond to a message seeking comment.

A senior judicial source said Lebanon's judiciary was unable to deliver the summons to attend the Paris hearing as it was addressed to Salameh at the Central Bank and he was unavailable to receive it.

Another judicial source said the defense attorneys for the Salamehs and for the central bank chief's assistant Marianne Hoayek had submitted an objection to Lebanon's judiciary over the French case, saying France should not be allowed to try a case already being investigated in Lebanon.

The three have been charged in two separate cases in Lebanon. Riad and Raja Salameh have denied diverting public funds and neither Hoayek nor her lawyer have spoken publicly about the charges.

Lebanon's top public prosecutor said in January that Beirut could delay cooperating with foreign investigations pending progress on the local probes.

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With UNRWA Fate Unclear, UN and Israel Argue over Who’s Responsible for Palestinians

Palestinians, including children, hold metal pots and pans as they gather to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, 10 January 2025. (EPA)
Palestinians, including children, hold metal pots and pans as they gather to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, 10 January 2025. (EPA)
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With UNRWA Fate Unclear, UN and Israel Argue over Who’s Responsible for Palestinians

Palestinians, including children, hold metal pots and pans as they gather to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, 10 January 2025. (EPA)
Palestinians, including children, hold metal pots and pans as they gather to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, 10 January 2025. (EPA)

The United Nations and Israel are arguing over who must fill the gap if the UN Palestinian relief agency UNRWA stops working in the Gaza Strip and West Bank later this month when an Israeli law comes into force.

UNRWA still operates in the Palestinian territories, but it is unclear what awaits the nearly 75-year-old agency when the law banning its operation on Israeli land and contact with Israeli authorities takes effect.

The UN and Israel have been engaged in tit-for-tat letter writing since the law on UNRWA was passed in late October. Shortly after, the UN told Israel it was not the world body's responsibility to replace UNRWA in the Palestinian territory - Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

In a letter to the UN General Assembly and Security Council late on Thursday, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said if UNRWA was forced to stop operating then Israel "would be left to ensure that the range of services and assistance which UNRWA has been providing are provided" in accordance with its obligations under international law.

Guterres wrote that while other UN agencies were prepared to continue providing services and assistance to the Palestinians - to the extent they can - that "must not be viewed as releasing Israel from its obligations."

The United Nations views Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, as Israeli-occupied territory. International law requires an occupying power to agree to and facilitate relief programs and ensure food, medical care, hygiene and public-health standards.

In a Dec. 18 letter to the world body, Israel's UN Ambassador Danny Danon said the new legislation "does not in any way undermine Israel's steadfast commitment to international law." He also rejected UN claims that Israel would be responsible for filling any gap left by UNRWA.

He wrote that Israel does not exercise effective control over Gaza and therefore is not an occupying power, adding that the law of military occupation also does not apply. He said that in the West Bank the responsibility of the Palestinian Authority for civilian affairs "must not be overlooked."

"In Jerusalem, all residents are entitled to government and municipal services under Israeli law," said Danon, adding that included health and education services. Israel annexed East Jerusalem in a move not recognized abroad.

HEALTH, EDUCATION AT RISK

Israel has long been critical of UNRWA. It says UNRWA staff took part in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel. The UN has said nine UNRWA staff may have been involved and were fired. A Hamas commander in Lebanon - killed in September by Israel - was also found to have had an UNRWA job.

The United States has said its ally Israel must ensure the new law does not further impede aid deliveries and critical services, including by UNRWA, in Gaza, which has been engulfed in a humanitarian crisis during the war between Israel and Palestinian Hamas group.

But it has also questioned UN contingency planning.

State Department officials met this week with the transition team of incoming US President Donald Trump - who takes office on Jan. 20 - and raised concerns about how the crisis in Gaza could deepen once the UNRWA law is implemented, said a US official.

UNRWA, established by the UN General Assembly, provides aid, health and education services to millions of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and neighboring Arab countries - Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.

Guterres said UNRWA's unique role could not be replaced. UN officials say it is the health, education and social services UNRWA provides in the Palestinian territory that would suffer most as other agencies cannot match its ability to deliver such help.

Danon argued that "replacing UNRWA with relief schemes that will adequately provide essential assistance to Palestinian civilians is not at all impossible," citing the aid operation in Gaza where he said other UN agencies were equipped to provide the necessary response "as they do elsewhere in the world."

Other agencies working in Gaza and the West Bank include the children's organization UNICEF, the World Food Program, the World Health Organization, and the UN Development Program. But top UN officials and the Security Council describe UNRWA as the backbone of the current humanitarian operation in Gaza.

Israel launched an assault on Hamas in Gaza after the fighters killed 1,200 people in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and took some 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

More than 46,000 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to Palestinian health officials. Much of the enclave has been laid waste and most of the 2.3 million people have been displaced multiple times. Food experts warn of a looming famine.