Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb met with the Swiss ambassador in Cairo Markus Leitner on Thursday night to discuss returning Egyptian money smuggled to Switzerland during the Mubarak era, and Swiss actions to unfreeze those funds. During the meeting, Mehleb highlighted the government's concern regarding the issue of dealing with the smuggled funds, and to the continuous coordination between the Egyptian and the Swiss authorities, to hasten up the restoration process to end the issue, said state-owned newspaper Al-Ahram. The Swiss ambassador said that the Swiss side has renewed the freeze on the funds for a period of three more years, in spite of the intense pressure exercised by the lawyers of the owners of those funds. The ambassador also said that there is cooperation at the moment with the Egyptian general prosecutor and the Egyptian Ministry of Justice concerning the restoration of the money to the Egyptian authorities, as well as combating money laundering. Mehleb stressed that these smuggled funds are rightfully belong to the Egyptian people, and must be returned to the state soon, according to the legal procedures in force. Switzerland had renewed the freeze last December, holding $790m deposited by former president Hosni Mubarak and his aides.
