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Central banker Salameh: targeted by investigators
Photo: Hussein Malla / AP
Lebanon has received a wanted request from Interpol against central bank governor Riad Salameh. Acting Interior Minister Bassam Maulawi told Reuters. He intends to comply with the request of the international police authority if the judiciary asks him to do so. "Whatever the judiciary says, we will do," Maulawi said.
The basis for the search is an arrest warrant in France. There, the central banker is accused of embezzlement of hundreds of millions of euros in public funds, which Salameh denies. Interpol has now issued a so-called "Red Notice", which calls on the authorities to arrest a wanted person – with the aim of extraditing him.
Regular guest in Europe
In total, there are five foreign investigations against the 72-year-old head of Lebanon's central bank. Interior Minister Maulawi therefore urged him to withdraw, saying he considered it "necessary" for Salameh to resign. Deputy Prime Minister Saadeh Al-Shami had already called on the head of the central bank to do so on Thursday. The issue is to be discussed in more detail at a cabinet meeting on Monday, but is already "part of the talks between the country's leaders".
Salameh was once a regular guest at bank summits and expensive restaurants in Europe. He is now rarely seen in public – apart from television interviews in which he defends his record. The central banker has long enjoyed the support of important political players in Lebanon, but has since lost it.
The country has been in a financial crisis for years. Decades of waste, corruption and inadequate fiscal policies have plunged Lebanon into a severe crisis. The national currency has depreciated drastically, and many Lebanese have slipped into poverty.
rai/Reuters