Farid Al-Deeb, lawyer of ousted president Hosni Mubarak, said in a statement Sunday that after the Swiss Federal Council’s decision to unfreeze the assets held for Egypt, “it has become clear that there never have been any assets of former president Hosni Mubarak.”
Al-Deeb said that after 11 February 2011, several assets from the former regime were frozen and this was translated to assets abroad. As a result of this, the Swiss Federal Council decided to freeze assets of the suspected personnel until investigations into corruption and embezzlement charges were done.
The lawyer added, in a statement, that Mubarak’s name was on the list, clarifying that this was based on “rumours”. He also added that Mubarak continuously denied that he had any assets in Switzerland.
He explained that from 2011 to 2017, the freezing order was renewed twice. In 2017, the Swiss Federal Council announced that it will end the freeze on the remaining $436m of frozen Egyptian assets.
He quoted part of the council’s statement, saying that although “some individuals are enlisted to have their assets frozen, does not necessarily mean that they have any assets in Switzerland.”
In November, the Egyptian Public Prosecutor’s Office announced that Switzerland has ended the judicial cooperation with Egypt to retrieve assets, funds, and money syphoned by ousted president Hosni Mubarak and figures of his regime to the country.
Since 2011, the amount of Egyptian assets frozen in Switzerland has been progressively reduced to about $436m following the delisting of names from the ordinance, at the request of Egyptian authorities.
At the beginning of March, Mubarak, who had to step down following the popular uprising known as the 25 January Revolution, was released from the Maadi military hospital, heading to his residence in the Heliopolis suburb of Cairo.
This comes as former interior minister Habib Al-Adly was arrested after being sentenced to seven years in prison over embezzlement of the ministry’s funds. He was also ordered, along with other defendants, to pay back the state nearly EGP 195m, although wasted funds were estimated at more than EGP 1bn. The Court of Cassation is scheduled to look into an appeal on the verdict in January.
