By Vatican News staff reporter —  Lebanese President Michel Aoun met with Pope Francis in the Vatican on Monday. The roughly …

Source: icibeyrouth.com -- L’information est tombée comme un couperet : Michel Mecattaf est décédé, foudroyé par une crise cardiaque durant une randonnée matinale dans la neige, à Fayara, dans le Kesrouan. L’annonce du décès du PDG de la société Mecattaf pour le transfert de fonds, une compagnie libanaise de renommée internationale, aurait pu passer pour un fait divers anodin, n’était le contexte dans lequel elle est intervenue. " Cela fait des mois qu’il ne vit plus ". Une phrase répétée par plusieurs de ses proches. Plus exactement, depuis que Ghada Aoun, la procureure générale près la cour d’appel du Mont-Liban, bien que dessaisie à l’époque par le procureur de la République Ghassan Oueidate des dossiers de crimes financiers qu’elle s’est réservée, s’était acharnée contre la société Mecattaf. Proche du camp présidentiel, Mme Aoun soupçonnait cette entreprise d’avoir opéré des transferts de fonds illicites vers l’étranger durant le dernier trimestre de 2019.

Des soupçons qu’elle n’a toujours pas pu prouver. En dépit d’une redistribution des missions au sein des parquets de la cour d’appel à l’époque, la juge, secondée par des partisans du Courant patriotique libre (CPL) et des agents du Service de sécurité de l’Etat, proche du camp présidentiel, avait opéré en avril 2021 une série de descentes qui relevaient du spectacle burlesque bas de gamme, dans les locaux de la société, pour s’emparer de documents et d’ordinateurs.

by presidency — Today, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi received Cardinal Mar Béchara Boutros Raï, Maronite Patriarch of Antioch and all the East. …

By Najia Houssari -- arabnews.com -- BEIRUT: A Cabinet meeting was convened on Saturday to address judicial actions against seven banks in Lebanon. The meeting conducted a review of the conflict between banks and the judiciary. The extraordinary session was held under the title “The higher interest of the state.” The Cabinet concluded with Mikati affirming that the council of ministers had agreed that the law would take its course based on the principle of cooperation between the authorities without any discrimination or discretion. It also agreed that judicial matters would be resolved according to laws by the staff of the judicial authority. A ministerial source who took part in the session told Arab News that the ministers saw that it was not allowed for judges to use depositors’ money to achieve a certain populism. The judge should not be a populist and tweet on Twitter, some ministers reportedly felt. “The banks are indeed mistaken and there is indeed a major crisis, but it should be addressed in a balanced and non-random manner,” they suggested. In response to what it described as a “judicial attack on banks,” the Association of Banks has called for the issuance of the capital control law as soon as possible.

In addition to the strike, the association warned that it might “take other steps that may be necessary to preserve the national economy and the supreme Lebanese interest.” The decision on a set of lawsuits filed by activist groups against some major banks in Lebanon to recover depositors’ money coincided with investigations on charges against the central bank governor on suspicion of illegal enrichment and money laundering. The judicial procedures resulted in the execution of the seizure of Fransabank’s assets, shares, and real estate and of the Creditbank and the branches of Blom Bank in Tripoli. The Association of Depositors indicated its intention “to file more executive lawsuits against banks in the coming days.”

In a related development, the brother of Central Bak Gov. Raja Salameh, was arrested by the appeal public prosecutor in Mount Lebanon, Ghada Aoun, after he appeared before her as a witness. Salameh’s attorney, Marwan Issa El-Khoury, said the allegations of “illicit enrichment and money laundering” were unfounded and the case was “media speculation without any evidence.” The governor of the central bank had refrained from coming to Judge Aoun’s office more than a week ago as a witness, as he had filed a lawsuit to respond to Judge Aoun about the case in which he was investigated. Aoun has also issued a travel ban against Salameh. She said that the possibility of the political authority putting pressure on the judiciary was an “unacceptable attack on judges who perform their professional duty, if some people did not like this or that prosecution.”