The director of Syria's largest bank was arrested after losing five million dollars in public funds in a bad transaction, legal sources said Tuesday.
Mahmud Nadim Metqal, head of the state-owned Commercial Bank of Syria (CBS), is facing charges before the nation's economic security court, a lawyer who spoke on condition of anonymity told AFP.
Tishreen daily reported Monday that Metqal had been under investigation for transferring money to an unidentified foreign bank whose operations were "marginal."
It added he made the transfer "even though he knew that the other bank was in a precarious situation, and took no steps to remedy the problem."
The verdicts of the economic security court are final and without appeal, although it was not immediately clear what punishment Metqal could face if indeed convicted.
Syria's banks were nationalized in 1963 after the pan-Arab Ba’ath party ascended to power in Damascus, and the CBS was founded in 1967.
Last year, the Syrian government authorized the creation of private banks but none has yet been opened, with the regulations that would oversee their operations yet to be finalized, the report added. (Albawaba.com)
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