CAIRO - Switzerland has no desire to keep any ill-gotten gains from Egypt, said a Swiss diplomat in Cairo on Wednesday. The decision to freeze CHF 410 million in assets held by Egyptian individuals belonging to the former Mubarak regime is a sign of Swiss goodwill concerning the return of illegally acquired money, according to Swiss Ambassador in Cairo Dominic Furgler. "Switzerland hopes to be able to quickly return to the Egyptian people all frozen assets whose origin is proven by the Egyptian authorities to be illegal," Furgler told a press conference, along with a Swiss delegation of experts who were visiting Egypt on May 10 and 11 to discuss with the Egyptian authorities the nature of the mutual legal assistance. Furgler added that the freezing of the money would give the Egyptian authorities the chance to gather evidence about the illegality of these assets. “The money can be frozen for three years and in some special cases even longer. However, the necessary legal procedures take a long time,” he added. Through mutual legal assistance Egypt can freeze the money of other people suspected of corruption. "But a request for mutual assistance must contain the description of the essential facts, reasonable grounds for suspicion and the whereabouts of the assets,” said Furgler, adding that Switzerland was ready to co-operate with the Egyptian authorities. Furgler added that there were no secret balances in Switzerland and every bank can reveal information about any account, at the request of a judge. "In the past 15 years, Switzerland has returned CHF 1.7 billion to the people of countries affected by corruption,” he said. The frozen CHF 410 million includes assets of ex-President Hosni Mubarak, his two sons, their wives and some ex-ministers and their families.
