Lebanon tasked the security forces on Wednesday with investigating a meeting between influential Lebanese Christian businessman Antoun Sehnaoui and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a judicial official told AFP.
Lebanese law criminalizes contact with Israel. The countries began direct talks under US sponsorship in April, a month after the latest fighting erupted between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah.
Axios journalist Barak Ravid said on X that on Monday night in Washington, Sehnaoui and former US envoy Morgan Ortagus hosted a dinner attended by high-profile officials including Netanyahu.
The dinner was in memory of Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who died this month.
An accompanying photo showing Sehnaoui and Netanyahu at the same table sparked uproar on social media in Lebanon across the political spectrum.
The judicial official, requesting anonymity, told AFP that the public prosecutor had tasked the security forces "with opening an investigation into the photo" to establish "whether it is authentic".
The "appropriate legal procedures" will be taken based on the outcome of the investigation, the official added.
In another image posted on Netanyahu's X account, Sehnaoui is visible behind the Israeli premier.
The judicial official said that several lawyers had also submitted a report demanding "the prosecution of Sehnaoui for crimes related to dealing with Israel and communicating with Netanyahu".
The prosecutor is to examine the matter and decide whether to refer it to the military court.
Sehnaoui, who is in favor of normalizing ties with Israel, is chairman of Lebanon's SGBL bank and involved with Lebanese media outlets. He is also a movie producer and philanthropist.
Lebanese lawyer Wassef El-Harakeh said he had lodged a personal complaint against Sehnaoui for "dealing with the enemy", saying the matter required a "serious, transparent judicial investigation, free of any political, financial or clientelist immunity".
In April, at an event at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in which Sehnaoui was recognized as a donor, Ortagus said Sehnaoui and his family "come from generations of committed Lebanese Christian Zionists", according to footage of the event.
"I'm going to brag on him because I love him... What Antoun is doing today is technically illegal in Lebanon," she said, in reference to Lebanese laws banning contact with Israel.
The move stirred controversy in Lebanon at a time when Israel was pummeling the country during its war with Hezbollah.
