Ghada Aoun, the Attorney General of the Mount Lebanon Court of Appeal, attempted to reclaim the financial cases she had been removed from after her dismissal by Judge Jamal Hajjar, the Acting Public Prosecutor at the Court of Cassation. However, her efforts were destined to fail.
Information obtained by Houna Loubnan indicates that the acting public prosecutor at the Court of Cassation, Jamal Hajjar, denied a request she had sent him to “instruct agents from the Criminal Investigation Department to bring the former governor of the Central Bank, Riad Salameh, to her office so that she can interview him as part of her investigation into three files pending with her.”
Hajjar also refused to allow Salameh to be questioned in the place where he is currently being held.
According to judicial sources, Hajjar’s response is a direct result of his decision, made some months ago, to end Aoun’s responsibilities in the bank cases because of her capricious actions, which run counter to fundamental justice standards.
Judge Hajjar placed Salameh in detention, on Monday, as part of the inquiry into the Optimum Invest affair.
On Tuesday, the Financial Public Prosecutor’s Office initiated proceedings against the former Central Bank Governor and handed the case over to the first acting investigating judge in Beirut, Bilal Halawi.
