Former General Prosecutor Judge Hatem Madi said today, May 22, that “the red notice for BDL’s Riad Salameh issued by the French Judiciary has no legal effect in Lebanon.”

He added in an interview on a local radio station that “the Lebanese authorities cannot arrest a Lebanese citizen under an international warrant to extradite them to France.”

“[They] can, however, be warned that there is a suspicious Lebanese citizen,” he explained.

Madi went on to explain that what the Lebanese authorities can do is “question the Governor and initiate a proceeding against him in Lebanon.”