The work began with a meeting held last Monday between the public prosecutor, Ghassan Oweidat, and the investigating judges of France Aude Burezi and Serge Tournaire; financial attorney general Quentin Dandoy from Luxembourg and investigator Martine Kraus from Germany.

On the Lebanese side, Judge Emily Mirna Kallas presided over the witness hearings, including the interrogations of three former assistants to the governor of the Central Bank, as well as directors of the entity itself and other commercial lending houses, along with an auditor.

The sessions were held in secret in the presence of the joint investigation team from the three countries for five days and the judicial delegation expressed its full readiness to implement the requests that Lebanon addressed to them in accordance with the principle of reciprocity.

Local reports reflected that the investigation seeks to determine the sources of the assets of the governor of the Central Bank, Riad Salameh, in Europe and the monetary transactions that occurred from Lebanese territory in recent years.

Investigations into those close to Salameh can be considered one of the final steps before filing direct charges, according to judicial sources.

Since the end of 2021, experts in Switzerland, France and Luxembourg have been looking for clues in Salameh’s career on suspicion of embezzlement from the Central Bank.

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