The Swiss authorities have frozen more assets belonging to former President Hosni Mubarak and his associates, the Swiss news agency SDA reported on Wednesday.
This brings the total to over US$700 million in assets that have been frozen by Switzerland, compared to a previous figure of 410 million Swiss francs (US$414 million), Jeannette Balmer, spokeswoman for Swiss federal prosecutors, said in a written statement. The prosecutor’s office was not immediately available to comment.
The Swiss authorities are working closely with their counterparts in Egypt and Tunisia to get frozen assets of illegal origin returned to the people of the two countries as quickly as possible, Balmer added.
On Tuesday, the anti-graft agency said that Mubarak and other regime figures’ embezzled assets total at least US$704 million.
Assem al-Gohary, head of the Illicit Gains Authority (IGA) and the judicial committee in charge of retrieving smuggled assets, told Al-Masry Al-Youm that frozen assets in Switzerland were estimated at US$413 million before the revolution.
He added that the committee submitted documents with information regarding investigations into a number of former regime figures, who allegedly had siphoned an additional US$292 million abroad.
Since the start of Arab uprisings last year, Switzerland has also blocked funds stashed in its banks linked to former Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi, former Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
