SAWT BEIRUT INTERNATIONAL

| 28 March 2024, Thursday |

Judge Aoun accuses Riad Salameh, his wife and brother of money laundering.

The Appeal Public Prosecutor in Mount Lebanon, Judge Ghada Aoun,added a new case to the files of Banque du Liban Governor Riad Salameh, as she accused him today of the crime of “illicit enrichment and money laundering.” The prosecution also included his brother, Raja Salameh, and the wife of the governor, Anna Kozakova (of Ukrainian nationality) with the crime of interfering in this crime. The prosecution also included the companies of Raja Salameh and Kozakova abroad.

Aoun referred the file with the arrested Raja Salameh to the first investigative judge in Mount Lebanon, Nicolas Mansour, and requested their interrogation and the issuance of arrest warrants against them.

The allegation came after the governor of the Banque du Liban refused to appear before Judge Aoun, who had scheduled a session to question him today, Monday, considering that “there is a feud between him and Judge Aoun, who insists on pursuing him as part of a systematic process to discredit him, and only for purely political reasons.” Salameh’s refusal to submit to Judge Aoun’s will, also came after her decision to arrest his brother Raja last Thursday after a lengthy interrogation he was subjected to, and ended with his arrest on the charges against him.

To complete these procedures, Judge Aoun issued a decision today, seizing all of Raja Salameh’s property and real estate, and attributed this to “preserving the rights of the public treasury, as a result of wasting money revealed by the judicial investigations, conducted by Aoun, and based on the lawsuit submitted by the lawyers’ group “ Justice Pioneers”, represented by attorney Haitham Ezzo.

In this context, the lawyers of the “Justice Pioneers ” and “United” groups filed a new lawsuit before the Public Prosecution in Mount Lebanon, in a personal claim against all members of the Central Council of the Banque du Liban and its government delegates, current and former, since the Governor of the Banque du Liban assumed his duties, and that for crimes of functional negligence, gross error in managing a public facility, misuse of power, waste and squandering of public money, undermining the state’s financial position, and violating financial and banking laws and regulations stipulated in the penal and monetary and credit laws.

    Source:
  • Sawt Beirut International