عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Arab World

Lebanon Postpones Ex-central Bank Governor's Hearing

Lebanon's Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh gives an interview with AFP at his office in the capital Beirut on December 20, 2021. (AFP)
Lebanon's Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh gives an interview with AFP at his office in the capital Beirut on December 20, 2021. (AFP)
TT
TT

Lebanon Postpones Ex-central Bank Governor's Hearing

Lebanon's Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh gives an interview with AFP at his office in the capital Beirut on December 20, 2021. (AFP)
Lebanon's Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh gives an interview with AFP at his office in the capital Beirut on December 20, 2021. (AFP)

Lebanon's judiciary postponed a hearing scheduled Wednesday for former central bank governor Riad Salameh, accused of embezzling more than $300 million, a judicial official told AFP.

Salameh, who headed the central bank for three decades and was arrested in 2024, has faced numerous accusations including embezzlement, money laundering and tax evasion in separate probes in Lebanon and abroad.

He has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

The judicial official said that the hearing concerned the transfer of $330 million from the central bank to Forry Associates Ltd, a British Virgin Islands-registered company, and was postponed due to a lawsuit Salameh filed against the presiding judge.

The former governor and his brother Raja are also the subject of criminal proceedings in Europe, where funds embezzled from the central bank were allegedly laundered.

In May 2023, a French judge issued an international arrest warrant for Salameh, who also holds French citizenship.

The judicial official said a separate hearing is scheduled on July 30 regarding a complaint filed against Salameh by current central bank governor Karim Souaid.

The central bank had filed a lawsuit against Salameh, without naming him, and another former banking official this year on charges related to the misappropriation of central bank funds, illicit enrichment and suspected money laundering.

The investigation into ill-gotten Lebanese assets took on a new dimension with the indictment in May in Paris of the Swiss subsidiary of the British bank HSBC, suspected of having helped Salameh embezzle funds.

Most Viewed

 
 
Arab World

Lebanon Approves Release of Fadl Shaker

Lebanese singer Fadel Shaker (Instagram)
Lebanese singer Fadel Shaker (Instagram)
TT
TT

Lebanon Approves Release of Fadl Shaker

Lebanese singer Fadel Shaker (Instagram)
Lebanese singer Fadel Shaker (Instagram)

The Lebanese judiciary on Wednesday approved the released of Fadl Shaker months after he surrendered himself to authorities, a judicial official told AFP.

The entertainer, born to a Lebanese father and a Palestinian mother, turned himself over to authorities in October after more than a decade in hiding in a Palestinian refugee camp.

Shaker was accused of taking part in 2013 clashes in the south Lebanon city of Sidon between the military and supporters of a the Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir militant group, which left more than a dozen soldiers dead.

While Shaker was a supporter of Assir, he denied involvement in the violence.

The judicial official, requesting anonymity, said the judiciary "approved the release of artist Fadl Shaker in the four security cases filed against him, most notably the Abra case", referring to the Sidon clashes.

"The court released Fadl Shaker in three cases on bail of 100 million Lebanese pounds ($1,117) for each case, and 200 million Lebanese pounds for the Abra case," the official added.

According to the official, Shaker is expected to leave prison on Wednesday after his legal team posted the bail.

In 2020, Lebanon's military tribunal sentenced Shaker to 22 years in prison for providing financial and logistical support to the "terrorist" Assir-led group.

During his years on the run, courts convicted him in absentia and imposed sentences ranging from five to 15 years of hard labor.

Shaker was also accused, alongside Assir and four others, of the attempted murder of Hilal Hammoud, a local official with the Hezbollah-allied Lebanese Resistance Brigades.

They were all acquitted in this case in May due to "insufficient evidence".

In the months leading up to his surrender in October, Shaker released new songs, recorded in the refugee camp, that topped charts in the Arab world.

Arab World

Gaza: Israeli Fire Kills Five People, including a Child

Palestinian casualties are transported by paramedics after arriving from Gaza at the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing (File/AFP).
Palestinian casualties are transported by paramedics after arriving from Gaza at the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing (File/AFP).
TT
TT

Gaza: Israeli Fire Kills Five People, including a Child

Palestinian casualties are transported by paramedics after arriving from Gaza at the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing (File/AFP).
Palestinian casualties are transported by paramedics after arriving from Gaza at the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing (File/AFP).

Israeli airstrikes killed at least five Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, health officials there said.

Medics said an Israeli missile hit a tent for displaced people in the Mawasi area in Khan Younis, in the south of the enclave, killing at least four people including a 10-year-old child, while another attack killed one person near a school in Gaza City. Twelve people were wounded in the two incidents.

The Israeli military didn't immediately comment on either incident, Reuters reported.

Israel has repeatedly carried out strikes in Gaza since a US-mediated ceasefire with Hamas was reached last October, saying it is targeting militants who threaten its forces or who took part in the October 2023 attack on Israel.

Hamas has accused Israel of violating the ceasefire. Nickolay Mladenov, US President Donald Trump's appointed Board of Peace envoy to Gaza, has said both sides have violated the agreement.

Since the ceasefire took effect nine months ago, more than 1,070 Palestinians, many of them civilians, and four Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza, according to figures released by the two sides. Hamas does not disclose the number of its fighters killed.

Arab World

Drone Strikes on Civilian Vehicles Kill at Least 20 in Sudan, Rights Groups Say

Scenes from the war in Sudan (AFP)
Scenes from the war in Sudan (AFP)
TT
TT

Drone Strikes on Civilian Vehicles Kill at Least 20 in Sudan, Rights Groups Say

Scenes from the war in Sudan (AFP)
Scenes from the war in Sudan (AFP)

Drone strikes on civilian vehicles headed to social gatherings in Sudan have killed over 20 people in recent day, according to rights groups, as the use of unmanned aircraft becomes increasingly common in the north eastern African country’s war.

A drone hit the outskirts of Khartoum killing 10 civilians, including five women from the same family, as they drove to a wedding, the Sudan Doctors Network said on Wednesday.

The medical aid group, which has been tracking violence between the military and the Rapid Support Forces throughout the war — which is in its fourth year — blamed Tuesday's attack on a road west of Omdurman, the sister city of the capital, Khartoum, on the RSF.

The vehicle immediately caught fire and all 10 people inside died, an eyewitness told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

The Sudan Doctors Network said that the strike “was deliberate and carried out using a guided drone” and called for the international community to pressure RSF leadership to stop targeting civilians.

A separate drone strike on Tuesday hit a transport vehicle near a water facility in the province, killing two people, according to Emergency Lawyers, which tracks violence in Sudan. The previous day, 13 civilians, including five women, were killed when a drone hit their vehicle as they headed to a wedding in a al-Shaatout town, in North Kordofan province, Emergency Lawyers said.

“This attack is part of an escalating pattern of drone attacks on civilians as drones continue to fly over the northern parts of the province...monitoring residents’ movements,” the group said in a statement.

North Kordofan has seen a surge in drone strikes amid repeated international concerns about the RSF closing in on the strategic city of el-Obeid, which is home to the army’s 5th Infantry Division. Drone strikes on the city have destroyed civilian infrastructure, including power facilities and neighborhoods, and targeted bridges and key supply routes, according to the UN.

The war in Sudan, which started in April 2023 after long-simmering tensions between the army and the RSF, has killed at least 59,000 people, displaced some 13 million and pushed many parts of the country into famine. More than 30 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance.