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Double trouble: Lebanon’s Salameh gets second arrest warrant from Germany

Riad Salameh is under increased scrutiny in Europe on suspicions of money laundering at a time Lebanon is grappling with a deteriorating financial and economic crisis.
A Lebanese anti-government protester hold a mask of Lebanon's Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh during a protest in front of the central bank headquarters in Beirut to protest against the economic policies of the bank on November 27, 2019. - Since September, debt-saddled Lebanon has had a liquidity crisis, with banks rationing the supply of dollars. As a result, the dollar exchange rate on the parallel market has topped 2,000 Lebanese pounds -- a spike from the pegged rate of 1,507. (Photo by JOSEPH EID /

BEIRUT — As Lebanon struggles to overcome a suffocating economic crisis, the domestic and international judicial actions against the country’s central bank governor Riad Salameh are proceeding at full throttle with a second arrest warrant from Germany.

Reuters reported on Thursday that Germany’s public prosecutor has verbally informed the Lebanese judiciary of an arrest warrant against Riad Salameh, who is being probed both at home and abroad over a series of financial crimes.

A senior judicial source told the news agency that the charges against Salameh include corruption, forgery, money laundering and embezzlement.

Berlin's move comes a week after France issued a similar arrest warrant against the embattled governor, after he failed to show up at a hearing in Paris, where French prosecutors were planning to present fraud and money laundering charges against him.

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