Lebanese security forces detained former central bank governor Riad Salameh inside Bhannes Hospital in Mount Lebanon on Friday, enforcing a search notice issued after he repeatedly failed to appear for questioning.
Prosecutor General at the Court of Cassation Judge Ahmad Rami al-Hajj ordered Salameh’s detention after prosecutors received information that he was at the hospital.
Al-Hajj sent patrols from the Internal Security Forces’ Information Branch and the Central Criminal Investigations Department to verify the report. Once they confirmed that Salameh was inside, he ordered the execution of the search warrant, and Salameh was formally placed under arrest.
The judge also instructed security forces to tighten security around Salameh’s hospital wing and at the hospital entrances, and to monitor visitors to his room.
The case stems from Salameh’s refusal to appear in a lawsuit filed by Banque du Liban against him and former Bank Audi Chairman Samir Hanna over “serious suspicions concerning the management of financial flows at the bank during the financial crisis that began in 2019.”
His detention marks a tougher phase in the proceedings and adds to the mounting pressure on him inside Lebanon, alongside ongoing international cases.
Judicial source: Salameh tried every way to avoid questioning
A judicial source said the former central bank governor had “left no trick unused” in seeking to evade questioning.
The source told Asharq Al-Awsat that al-Hajj had summoned Salameh to appear before noon on Thursday, July 30.
Although formally notified, Salameh submitted a medical excuse through his lawyer, Wassim Ghaoui, saying his condition was serious and prevented him from attending.
Al-Hajj rejected the excuse and insisted that Salameh appear in person.
Ghaoui arrived at the Cassation Public Prosecution’s office on Thursday morning and informed the judge that his client would not attend because of illness.
Al-Hajj then issued an order compelling Salameh to appear.
Patrols from the Information Branch and the Central Criminal Investigations Department went to Salameh’s declared residence in Safra, Mount Lebanon, but found the villa closed and Salameh nowhere to be seen.
With the order in force and the prospect of arrest looming, Salameh’s lawyer told prosecutors that the former governor would appear voluntarily and asked them to suspend the order.
Less than half an hour later, according to the judicial source, Ghaoui called again.
He said Salameh had suffered a medical episode and a sharp rise in blood pressure while traveling to the Justice Palace and had been taken to the hospital for emergency treatment.
He asked prosecutors to postpone the questioning until Salameh recovered.
Search notice issued
Al-Hajj sent a doctor to verify the claim, but the doctor could not find Salameh in the emergency room or at any other hospital.
Security forces then expanded their search to three properties linked to Salameh in Safra, Faqra, and Rabieh, but failed to locate him.
The judicial source said this confirmed that Salameh was still refusing to appear.
“Following Salameh’s deliberate evasion of the investigation, Judge al-Hajj issued a search and inquiry notice against him and instructed the security services to arrest him immediately upon finding him and bring him before the judiciary,” the source said.
A new phase in the case
Former Bank Audi Chairman Samir Hanna, a defendant in the same case, appeared before prosecutors after having previously been questioned.
The Cassation public prosecutor ordered his release on $1 million cash bail and gave him until Monday to pay.
The measures push the case against Salameh into a more aggressive phase.
A senior legal source said Salameh feared being detained again and that the case could encourage people harmed by decisions he made as central bank governor to file dozens of lawsuits.
Those cases, the source said, could leave him spending the rest of his life in prison.
The source told Asharq Al-Awsat that Salameh was haunted by the prospect of returning to the cell where he spent 13 months in solitary detention.
He was detained in early September after former Cassation Public Prosecutor Judge Jamal Hajjar questioned him at length in a case which accused him of stealing $44 million in public funds belonging to the central bank.
