BEIRUT: Lebanon’s judiciary agreed Tuesday to the release on bail of more than $20 million of former central bank governor Riad Salameh, detained for nearly a year on embezzlement charges, judicial officials said.
Salameh, 75, who headed the central bank for three decades, faces numerous accusations including embezzlement, money laundering and tax evasion in separate probes in Lebanon and abroad.
He is widely viewed as a key culprit in Lebanon’s economic crash, which the World Bank has called one of the worst in recent history, but has defended his legacy, insisting he is a “scapegoat.”
The judiciary “agreed to release Salameh on bail of $20 million in addition to five billion Lebanese pounds (around $56,000) and banned him from travel for a year starting from the date of this decision’s implementation,” the judicial official said, requesting anonymity as they were not authorized to brief the media.
The decision relates to a case in which Salameh is accused of embezzling $44 million from the central bank, the official said, adding that the judiciary had issued release orders for him in two other cases last month.
