Salameh testifies before European judicial delegation in Lebanon

Riad Salameh has been Lebanon’s central bank governor since 1993. (File/AP)
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Updated 16 March 2023
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Salameh testifies before European judicial delegation in Lebanon

  • Bank du Liban governor attends meeting in Beirut at the Palace of Justice
  • Pope Francis meets caretaker PM Mikati as tensions rise amid currency crisis, political deadlock

BEIRUT: The governor of the banque du Liban, Riad Salameh, testified on Thursday before a European judicial delegation at the Palace of Justice in Beirut, as part of investigations into Salameh’s involvement in financial irregularities.

Strict security measures were taken in and around the palace. The army was deployed in the vicinity of the headquarters of the Military Court and the headquarters of the army intelligence near the National Museum, all the way to the Adliya Bridge.

Salameh entered and exited through a gate far from the press, via an elevator that leads directly to the floor where the session took place.

The European delegation, led by French judge Aude Buresi, who represented France and Luxembourg, did not question Salameh directly, with local judge Charbel Bou Samra questioning the governor as interpreters translated the answers.

No Lebanese or foreign lawyer accompanied Salameh to the hearing.

According to leaked information, Salameh answered all the questions and appeared comfortable while providing the delegation with explanations.

The European delegation is investigating the laundering of some $330 million.

The session was attended by the head of the Cases Authority at the Ministry of Justice, Helena Iskandar, after obtaining approval from the European judicial delegation, provided that she would not interfere in the course of the session.

Salameh reportedly told the delegation that he needed to chair a meeting of the Banque du Liban, scheduled for Thursday at 5 p.m., in the hope of the delegation ending the hearing early.

The delegation is not entitled to take any action against Salameh on Lebanese soil, and if it decides to charge him, can do so only in the countries where the investigation was initially opened.

Unconfirmed reports said Salameh submitted his resignation to Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, before the hearing, with Mikati asking him to wait until his governorship ends in July. However, central bank sources denied such claims, stressing that Salameh never offered to quit.

Should Salameh’s mandate end before a new Lebanese president is elected and government formed to appoint a new governor, Salameh’s deputy, Wassim Mansouri, takes over the task by proxy.

Mansouri, however, is Shiite, with the central bank governor position reserved for the Maronite community.

Meanwhile, there was turmoil in the financial market as banks continued their strike for a third day, and the Lebanese pound dropped to 102,200 pounds to the dollar, while food and fuel prices rose.

George Brax, a member of the syndicate of gas station owners, said he expected gas stations to face a technical problem in the next few days, as screens on fuel pumps will run out of space to display prices.

There has been no positive development so far in the process of electing a new president, despite continuous calls by Arab, foreign, and international officials to elect a new head of state without further delay.

After meeting with Mikati at the Vatican on Thursday, Pope Francis reiterated his firm belief in the message that Lebanon performs through cultural and religious pluralism that distinguishes it and makes it unique in the region.

He stressed the necessity of solidarity among Lebanese officials to get out of their various crises and elect a new president.

“I gave the pope a letter explaining the situation in Lebanon and the potential avenues of solution in which the Vatican could contribute to ensure their success, through its contacts with the international community, notably regarding the presidential election,” the statement from Mikati’s press office said.

In Beirut, the head of the Lebanese pharmacists syndicate Joe Salloum urged all trade unions and popular forces to declare “an open and comprehensive strike until a president is elected, and the rescue operation begins.”


Germany joins US, UK in making diplomatic contact with Syria’s HTS

Updated 3 sec ago
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Germany joins US, UK in making diplomatic contact with Syria’s HTS

BERLIN: Germany plans talks with representatives of Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) in Damascus on Tuesday, the foreign ministry said, joining the United States and Britain in establishing contact with the Islamist group after it led the overthrow of Syria’s Bashar Assad.
German diplomats’ first talks with representatives of the HTS-appointed interim government will focus on a transitional process for Syria and the protection of minorities, a spokesperson for the German foreign ministry said.
“The possibilities of a diplomatic presence in Damascus are also being explored there,” the spokesperson added in a statement, reiterating that Berlin was monitoring HTS closely in light of its roots in Al-Qaeda ideology.
“As far as one can tell, they have acted prudently so far,” the spokesperson said of the group, whose rebels led the ouster of Assad earlier this month, ending 13 years of war.
The conflict triggered the movement of some one million Syrian refugees to Germany. Its end has stoked debate in the country on asylum procedures, now paused for Syrians pending an assessment of the situation in their home country.
Germany is liaising closely with its partners, including the US, France and Britain, as well as Arab states, on Syria, the German ministry spokesperson said.

Israeli airstrikes kill 14 Palestinians in Gaza, tanks push south

Updated 17 December 2024
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Israeli airstrikes kill 14 Palestinians in Gaza, tanks push south

CAIRO: Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip killed at least 14 Palestinians on Tuesday, at least 10 of them in one house in Gaza City, medics said as tanks pushed deeper toward the western area of Rafah in the south.
Medics said the Israeli airstrike on the house in the Daraj suburb of Gaza City destroyed the building and damaged nearby houses. Four other people were killed in two separate airstrikes in the city and the town of Beit Lahiya north of the enclave said medics, medics added.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
In Rafah, near the border with Egypt, Israeli tanks pushed deeper toward the western area of Mawasi, known as a humanitarian-designated area, residents said.
Heavy fire from tanks rolling into the area forced dozens of families sheltering there to flee northwards toward Khan Younis.
The war began when the Palestinian militant group Hamas stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking more than 250 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli authorities.
Israel then launched an air and land offensive that has killed more than 45,000 people, mostly civilians, according to authorities in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.
The campaign has displaced nearly the entire population and left much of the enclave in ruins.


Israeli defence minister says Israel will have freedom of action in Gaza after defeating Hamas

Updated 17 December 2024
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Israeli defence minister says Israel will have freedom of action in Gaza after defeating Hamas

DUBAI: Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Monday Israel will have security control over Gaza with full freedom of action after defeating Hamas in the enclave.


At least 100,000 bodies in Syrian mass grave, US advocacy group head says

Updated 17 December 2024
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At least 100,000 bodies in Syrian mass grave, US advocacy group head says

  • Assad and his father Hafez, who preceded him as president and died in 2000, are accused by Syrians, rights groups and other governments of widespread extrajudicial killings, including mass executions within the country’s notorious prison system

WASHINGTON: The head of a US-based Syrian advocacy organization on Monday said that a mass grave outside of Damascus contained the bodies of at least 100,000 people killed by the former government of ousted President Bashar Assad.
Mouaz Moustafa, speaking to Reuters in a telephone interview from Damascus, said the site at al Qutayfah, 25 miles (40 km) north of the Syrian capital, was one of five mass graves that he had identified over the years.
“One hundred thousand is the most conservative estimate” of the number of bodies buried at the site, said Moustafa, head of the Syrian Emergency Task Force. “It’s a very, very extremely almost unfairly conservative estimate.”
Moustafa said that he is sure there are more mass graves than the five sites, and that along with Syrians victims included US and British citizens and other foreigners.
Reuters was unable to confirm Moustafa’s allegations.
Hundreds of thousands of Syrians are estimated to have been killed since 2011, when Assad’s crackdown on protests against his rule grew into a full-scale civil war.
Assad and his father Hafez, who preceded him as president and died in 2000, are accused by Syrians, rights groups and other governments of widespread extrajudicial killings, including mass executions within the country’s notorious prison system.
Assad repeatedly denied that his government committed human rights violations and painted his detractors as extremists.
Syria’s UN Ambassador Koussay Aldahhak did not immediately respond to a request for comment. He assumed the role in January — while Assad was still in power — but told reporters last week that he was awaiting instructions from the new authorities and would “keep defending and working for the Syrian people.”
Moustafa arrived in Syria after Assad flew to Russia and his government collapsed in the face of a lightning offensive by rebels that ended his family’s more than 50 years of iron-fisted rule.
He spoke to Reuters after he was interviewed at the site in al Qutayfah by Britain’s Channel 4 News for a report on the alleged mass grave there.
He said the intelligence branch of the Syrian air force was “in charge of bodies going from military hospitals, where bodies were collected after they’d been tortured to death, to different intelligence branches, and then they would be sent to a mass grave location.”
Corpses also were transported to sites by the Damascus municipal funeral office whose personnel helped unload them from refrigerated tractor-trailers, he said.
“We were able to talk to the people who worked on these mass graves that had on their own escaped Syria or that we helped to escape,” said Moustafa.
His group has spoken to bulldozer drivers compelled to dig graves and “many times on orders, squished the bodies down to fit them in and then cover them with dirt,” he said.
Moustafa expressed concern that graves sites were unsecured and said they needed to be preserved to safeguard evidence for investigations.

 


Syria’s Golani says rebel factions to be ‘disbanded’, calls for lifting sanctions

Updated 17 December 2024
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Syria’s Golani says rebel factions to be ‘disbanded’, calls for lifting sanctions

  • “Syria must remain united, and there must be a social contract between the state and all religions to guarantee social justice,” said Jolani

DAMASCUS: The leader of the Islamist group that toppled Bashar Assad said Monday that armed factions in war-torn Syria would be “disbanded” and their fighters placed under the defense ministry, and called for sanctions to be lifted so refugees can return.
Syrian president Assad was toppled by a lightning 11-day rebel offensive spearheaded by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham group (HTS), whose fighters and allies swept down from northwest Syria and entered the capital on December 8.
HTS leader Abu Mohammed Al-Golani said Monday on the group’s Telegram channel that all the rebel factions “would “be disbanded and the fighters trained to join the ranks of the defense ministry.”
“All will be subject to the law,” said Golani, who now uses his real name, Ahmed Al-Sharaa.
He also emphasized the need for unity in a country home to different ethnic minority groups and religions, while speaking to members of the Druze community — a branch of Shiite Islam making up about 3 percent of Syria’s pre-war population.
“Syria must remain united,” he said. “There must be a social contract between the state and all religions to guarantee social justice.”
Several countries and organizations have welcomed Assad’s fall but said they were waiting to see how the new authorities would treat minorities in the country.
During a second meeting with a delegation of British diplomats, the HTS leader also spoke “of the importance of restoring relations” with London.
He stressed the need to end “all sanctions imposed on Syria so that Syrian refugees can return to their country,” according to remarks reported on his group’s Telegram channel.
HTS is rooted in Syria’s branch of Al-Qaeda and proscribed as a terrorist organization by many Western governments, though it has sought to moderate its rhetoric.
Since the toppling of Assad, it has insisted that the rights of all Syrians will be protected.