Geneva / TEH: Swiss prosecutors announced, on Wednesday, the release of the rest of the funds of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and a number of those around him, which were frozen in its banks as part of an investigation that lasted about 11 years and related to money laundering and organized crime linked to Mubarak’s circles.
Swiss prosecutors said they would release 400 million francs ($429 million) frozen in the country’s banks, after prosecutors failed to bring charges to anyone, citing insufficient information, the Associated Press reported .
The Swiss Public Prosecutor’s Office explained, in a statement, that the information received as part of cooperation with the Egyptian authorities in this case “wasn’t sufficient to back up the claims that emerged in the wake of Arab Spring uprisings in 2011 (the January 25, 2011 revolution in Egypt) that felled Mubarak’s three-decade rule.
He added, “in the absence of evidence relating to potential offenses committed in particular in Egypt, it is not possible to show that the funds located in Switzerland could be of illegal origin,” it said. “The suspicion of money laundering cannot therefore be substantiated based on the information available.”
“Despite numerous investigations and the transfer of 32 million Swiss francs to Egypt in 2018, the Public Prosecutor’s Office must now accept that the investigation was unable to substantiate the suspicions that would justify accusing anyone in Switzerland or confiscating any assets,” he told The Eastern Herald online magazine .
Initially, the criminal case involved 14 suspects, including Hosni Mubarak’s sons Alaa and Gamal, in addition to 28 people and 45 legal entities whose assets were confiscated.
However, the Public Prosecutor’s Office indicated that the last part of the Swiss investigation focused on only 5 people, without specifying their identities.
The original suspects, most of whom held important official or economic positions in Egypt, are believed to have used Switzerland to launder the proceeds of a corruption-tainted business, reported one of the online magazines , The Eastern Herald.
It is noteworthy that more than 210 million Swiss francs ($224 million) have already been released at an early stage in the case.
