Riad Salameh held under guard in hospital

Former Lebanese central bank governor Riad Salameh was placed under police guard in a hospital outside Beirut on Friday after missing a hearing in an alleged embezzlement case, a judicial official told AFP.

Salameh had been due in court Thursday over a complaint by current central bank governor Karim Soueid accusing him of embezzlement, illicit enrichment and money laundering. The judicial official said a judge ordered authorities to escort him to court after he did not appear, but Salameh set off voluntarily, fell ill on the way and the hearing was postponed.

The official said a judge later ordered security forces to find Salameh when he was not located at a hospital emergency department or at registered addresses. After he was found, the judge ordered security forces to reinforce measures around his hospital wing and at the facility's entrances and to consider him in custody.

The central bank has said it was the victim of embezzlement of several hundred million euros allegedly committed at its expense by Salameh with help from people around him.

Salameh, 76, led the central bank from 1993 to July 2023. He has denied wrongdoing and says he is being made a scapegoat for Lebanon's economic collapse, which began in 2019.