Governor of Lebanon's Central Bank submits clarifying memo regarding his absence from court session

The judges gathered in the Palace of Justice in Beirut to interrogate the Governor of the Central Bank of Lebanon, Riad Salameh, in response to the European judicial request. The first investigating judge in Beirut, Charbel Abou Samra, and the head of the legal affairs department at the Ministry of Justice, Judge Helena Iskandar, also attended the session. However, Salameh did not attend the session.

Salameh's attorney submitted a clarifying memo and sent it to the Prosecutor General to express his opinion on the fate of the session that Salameh did not attend.

According to LBCI, in the memo submitted to Judge Charbel Abou Samra, Salameh considered his summoning to a European investigation session as a violation of Lebanese sovereignty. He referred to the international treaty to combat corruption, which permits a state to postpone mutual legal assistance due to conflicts with ongoing investigations or judicial procedures.

Later, Salameh's attorney confirmed to the European judicial delegation and Lebanese judges that his client would attend the Thursday session, after Judge Charbel Abou Samra deemed that the execution of the European judicial request did not conflict with Lebanese law or national sovereignty.