A Lebanese investigative judge with security personnel raided the Central Bank on Tuesday in a divisive investigation against the country's embattled governor.
Judge Ghada Aoun had been investigating Governor Riad Salameh, and in March charged him with illicit enrichment and money laundering.
In late March, in an initiative by Germany, France, and Luxembourg, the European Union froze $130 million worth of Lebanese assets belonging to five unnamed Lebanese. They accused the suspects of embezzling over $330 million and 5 million euros respectively between 2002 and 2021. It is widely believed that Riad Salameh and his brother Raja are among them.
Many hold Salameh responsible for the crisis, citing policies that drove up national debt and caused the Lebanese pound to lose 90% of its value against the dollar. The 71 year-old Central Bank governor still enjoys backing from most of Lebanon's political parties, and has been in the post for nearly three decades.
Aoun told the press after leaving the premises that she did not find Salameh and was unable to look for him in the building's offices and storage rooms. "We immediately received a judicial order ," she said.Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the raid in a statement, calling it a "brash" move for a sensitive file in the troubled country.
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