Mubaraks willing to reconcile with government over smuggled funds

The defense panel of the Mubaraks in Switzerland showed willingness to negotiate with the Egyptian government over the value of the funds the family managed to smuggle to Switzerland since 2011, said a justice minister aide.

Counselor Adel Saeed, Assistant Justice Minister for Illicit Gains Authority Affairs, hoped that such negotiations would be crowned with success, especially after the former president and his two sons were convicted of corruption.

Saeed made the remarks during a meeting with Swiss Prosecutor Michael Lauber and his accompanying judicial delegation.

The assets of Mubaraks were frozen by the Swiss authorities since the former leader's ouster in the January 25 revolution.

Saeed said the Egyptian government is keen to settle all practical problems hindering the repatriation of the smuggled funds, expressing hope that the new legislative amendments introduced by the Swiss Federal Council would accelerate the return of the funds.

He said the Swiss authorities have been freezing the assets of 14 Mubarak-regime officials since the January revolution and are dealing with everyone of them separately.

Talking about the way the government would deal with these funds, he said what happens is that the Egyptian authorities would first retrieve these funds then would follow up litigation procedures concerning them till final verdicts are handed down.

The Egyptian judiciary is very independent, he added.

The head of Swiss federal prosecutors said he became convinced after investigations with Mubarak-regime officials that all the funds that were smuggled to Switzerland were the fruit of criminal and dubious acts.

But they have to brought back to Egypt through legal channels and in compliance with articles of the Swiss law.

He believed that the best way to retrieve these funds is to negotiate with their owners because there are still many hurdles in Switzerland that could block these funds further more.

Swiss authorities have been freezing Egyptian funds amounting to CHF 590 million since the January resolution.

Source: MENA