The Governor of the Banque du Liban, Riad Salameh , appeared Thursday for the first time before European investigators, as part of investigations centered on his wealth and suspicions of money laundering, according to a judicial source told AFP.

Salameh attended around 10:30 am (8:30 GMT) to the Palace of Justice in Beirut, shortly after the arrival of the European delegation headed by French Judge Aud Bourizi, amid tight security measures inside and around the Palace of Justice, according to an AFP correspondent.

The hearing began in the presence of his lawyers, including a French lawyer.

And a judicial source had reported earlier that the European delegation had a list of 100 questions that it intended to direct to Salameh through the first investigating judge in Beirut, Charbel Abu Samra. It is likely that the hearings for Salameh "as a witness" will last three days "without any action being taken against him."

Investigators from France, Germany and Luxembourg are looking into money laundering and embezzlement cases in Lebanon linked to Salameh. In January in Beirut, they heard witnesses, including bank managers and current and former employees of the Banque du Liban.

The European investigations focus on the relationship between the Banque du Liban and the “Fore Associates” company, which is registered in the Virgin Islands and has an office in Beirut, and its economic beneficiary is Raja Salameh, brother of the Governor of the Banque du Liban. It is believed that the company played the role of intermediary to purchase treasury bonds and Eurobonds from the Central Bank of Lebanon by receiving a subscription commission, which was transferred to Raja Salameh's accounts abroad.

A year ago, the European Judicial Cooperation Unit "Eurojust" announced that France, Germany and Luxembourg had frozen 120 million euros of Lebanese assets following an investigation targeting Salameh and four of his close associates, including his brother, on charges of money laundering and "embezzlement of public funds in Lebanon worth more than $330 million." and 5 million euros, respectively, between 2002 and 2021.

Salameh was absent from a session that was scheduled for Wednesday, on the pretext that he had not received an answer about a memorandum he submitted, in which he considered that “the presence of international judges in Lebanon and the investigation of financial files with him contradicts national sovereignty.” However, the Lebanese judiciary rejected the content of the memorandum and set a date for his interrogation, Thursday.

The wealth of Salameh, one of the longest-serving central bank governors in the world who has served as the architect of Lebanon's financial policies since taking office in 1993, has been the focus of a local investigation in Lebanon since April 2021.

And after the prosecution in February against Salameh, his brother, and his assistant, Marianne Howayek, the Lebanese state, represented by the head of the Cases Authority in the Ministry of Justice, Judge Helena Iskandar, filed a personal claim against them for “crimes of bribery, forgery, use of counterfeiters, money laundering, illegal enrichment, and tax evasion.”

The judge requested that several measures be taken against the defendants, including “arresting them, seizing their real estate properties, and freezing their bank accounts,” in addition to “freezing the accounts of their spouses and minor children with Lebanese and foreign banks,” and preventing them from disposing of their real estate.

Salama denies the accusations against him, considering that his prosecution comes in the context of a political process to "tarnish" his image. And he confirms that he accumulated his wealth from his previous work for two decades in the global financial institution "Merrill Lynch" and from investments in several fields, apart from his work at the head of the governorship of the Banque du Liban.