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| Africa North |
| Swiss Extend Freeze on Ben Ali Assets |
| 2013-12-22 |
| The Swiss government has decided to continue a freeze on assets linked to former President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali for three more years. In early 2011, Switzerland froze 60 million francs ($67 million) in Tunisian assets and 700 million francs ($782 million) held by former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. “The aim of the asset freeze is to facilitate mutual legal assistance on criminal matters with the affected states and thus to create the preconditions for judicial scrutiny into the origin of suspicious assets,” the Swiss Federal Council, a seven-member cabinet said in a statement published on Wednesday. The aim of the three-year extension “is to give investigations in Tunisia and Egypt more time and to take account of the political transition in the two countries,” the statement read. Last October, a Switzerland fined three banks for mishandling assets belonging to the Ben Ali close circle. |
| Posted by:Steve White |