Swiss to freeze Mubarak, Ben Ali assets for 3 more years
Around 760 million Swiss francs in Tunisian and Egyptian assets will be kept frozen by the Swiss government
Around 760 million Swiss francs ($858 million) in Tunisian and Egyptian assets will be kept frozen by the Swiss government for three more years.
In a statement on Wednesday, Switzerland’s seven-member Federal Council said the decision applies to the 700 million francs held by former President Hosni Mubarak and his aides and another 60 million francs that were linked to Tunisia’s former autocrat Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, according to the Associated Press.
Both leaders were ousted during the wave of unrest that swept Tunisia and Egypt in 2011, known as the Arab Spring.
The “aim of this extension is to provide more time for criminal investigations in Tunisia and Egypt into the origin of these assets,” the statement read
And by granting the extension, the Council said, the Swiss government “is thereby taking account of the political transition in the two countries.”
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