Egypt requested banks to freeze assets of the deposed Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and his wife, Layla al-Taraboulsy, according to a report published on Tuesday in the London-based newspaper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat. The request came after the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) received notification from the Foreign Ministry calling for freezing assets of the Ben Ali, his wife and others. Several Tunisian authorities and international organizations monitoring assets of officials accused of financial corruption have reiterated their calls to freeze those assets. The newspaper quoted a senior Egyptian official at one of the banks as saying that the CBE's request includes all bank accounts, deposits, credit facilities and financial transactions of the ousted president and his wife. However, the official refused to state the assets' real value, and the official said the value of Ben Ali's assets in Egypt is not as large as many Tunisian organizations might think, saying Tunisia typically established investments in European countries, particularly in France. Many countries had frozen assets owned by the former Tunisian regime after Tunisian organizations had called for assets to be frozen as well as information about their value. The source added that despite being notified by the Tunisian authorities, former President Hosni Mubarak failed to adopt any measures to freeze the assets after Ben Ali was ousted on 14 January.
