Governor of the Banque du Liban, Riad Salameh, released the following statement:

Ghada Aoun, the Head of the Public Prosecution Department at the Court of Appeal in Mount Lebanon, summoned me to appear before the court on January 13, 2022, for an interrogation session.

As a result, on January 12, 2022, I sent her an appeal claim, which was filed before the Court of Appeal in Mount Lebanon under the number 1/2022.

I also sent Judge Aoun a letter on January 13, 2022, along with an original copy of the appeal claim, which her office received on the morning of that date, in which she requested that she stop pursuing the case based on Article 125 of the Civil Trials Law, and that the competent court issues a decision in this regard.

I respect the law and the judiciary, as I demonstrated in the previous stage by repeatedly appearing before judges, despite my conviction that the lawsuits filed against me are frivolous and were filed with a planned target: to exploit them in the media as part of a systematic effort to distort my image in the eyes of the public in Lebanon and abroad.
For example, when it came to Judge Ghada Aoun, she used her personal Twitter account to tweet regularly and in a hostile manner, addressing me with a pejorative word, launching “tweeting” decisions against me, and predicting legal judgements. When these judgements conflict with her goals, she targets the judges who make these decisions.

Rather, Judge Aoun went even farther, expressing her desire to represent and testify against me, which was documented in the Liechtenstein judiciary. Ms. Sokan, who lives in Switzerland, filed a complaint against me before the judicial authorities in Liechtenstein, in which she claimed that she depends on Judge Aoun and lawyer Wadih Akl, who belong to the same political line, to attend and testify before the courts in this nation.

In addition, Judge Aoun’s contact to the French judiciary from outside the sources targeted me.

According to the simplest legal rules, a judge cannot be an adversary and an arbiter at the same time, and it has become clear that behind all these lawsuits brought by the same people, there are political reasons.

The preparations for this campaign, which wanted to exploit the judiciary, began in 2016 and was based on false financial statements. I filed a lawsuit in France where a witness presented the names of those involved in this forgery, and we will reveal their names soon and show how they forged documents to suggest that I embezzled two billion dollars. From the Banque du Liban, and this forged report stated that I have accounts in Liechtenstein.

I’d also like to remind Judge Aoun that I entrusted a first-class auditing firm with the audit of all of my accounts, which sparked a lot of controversy, and I announced the results of this audit to the public with complete transparency, revealing that no funds from the Banque du Liban were used in any of these operations, as was claimed. I also announced that I do not have in my personal accounts with the Banque du Liban any income or any benefit from it. The results of this report were delivered at the time, to the Prime Minister, as well as to the Lebanese judiciary, which is investigating the same cases that Judge Aoun wants to investigate, as well as to the judiciary outside Lebanon, where necessary.