Germany Annuls Arrest Warrant for Lebanon’s Ex-Central Bank Chief
German authorities have annulled the arrest warrant for Riad Salameh, Lebanon’s former central bank governor, but their investigation continues, with his assets remaining frozen. This decision was confirmed by the Munich prosecutor’s office on Wednesday.
Salameh, who served as Lebanon’s central bank governor for three decades until July 2023, faced an arrest warrant from Germany for corruption in his final months in office. A spokesperson for the Munich prosecutor’s office explained that the warrant was canceled on June 10 following Salameh’s appeal, due to his no longer holding his official position, which mitigated the risk of evidence suppression.
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Despite the cancellation of the arrest warrant, the Munich court upheld the suspicions regarding the charges against Salameh, and the investigation is ongoing. Salameh has not commented on this development.
Both Salameh and his brother, Raja, are under investigation in Lebanon and several European countries for allegedly embezzling hundreds of millions of dollars from Lebanon’s central bank and laundering the money overseas. They have denied all allegations.
Germany confirmed in February that it was investigating the Salameh brothers for money laundering and had issued an arrest warrant. The Munich prosecutor’s office had also seized properties worth around 28 million euros in Munich and Hamburg, and shares valued at approximately 7 million euros in a Düsseldorf property company.
Lebanese judge Helene Iskandar, who has charged Salameh in a separate Lebanese case and has been monitoring the international investigations, confirmed the cancellation of the German warrant but noted that the investigation in Germany remains active. Salameh still faces an arrest warrant in France as part of an investigation into alleged embezzlement of public funds, accompanied by an Interpol red notice.
