The Federal Criminal Court of Switzerland has ruled to deny Egyptian representatives access to the file on the criminal case against several former regime members, following a complaint made by the defendants. A statement released on Monday by the court confirmed that the ruling was taken on 12 December by the Board of Appeal for the Federal Criminal court. The statement said that the “institutional situation of the country concerned" had a bearing on the decision. Previously the court had ruled that representatives of Egypt could have access to the file which includes banking information of the former regime members who are defendants in the case. The statement reported that some defendants appealed against this decision. The text of the decision published by the court outlined conditions agreed upon to grant Egypt's representatives access to the dossier. The agreement bound Egypt “not to use, directly or indirectly" the information in the file. The text further outlined that the complainants, “allege violations of human rights and non-observance of procedural safeguards currently present in Egypt and the political instability that characterises the state." The complainants argued that because of this, Egypt would not be able to respect its commitment regarding the use of the material in the file. The complainants highlighted the “interference that the executive power is currently exercising on the judiciary and the courts." The statement revealed that the court examined reports from human rights groups. It cited a report by Human Rights Watch saying, “the use of excessive force and torture by the police is still a problem.” The issue of funds that have been frozen abroad is an issue that has been ongoing since the fall of Mubarak's regime. Britain and Switzerland have all previously said they would do all they can to help Egypt regain the funds. The return of these funds is dependent on the verdicts for the former regime members in Egypt. The Administrative court announced on Tuesday that it had recovered EGP 5.1bn and $200.4m of stolen money, according to state-owned news agency MENA. The public prosecution service announced in November that it had regained EGP 11bn from former regime members and said that a further EGP 50bn was to follow.
