Mubarak regime assets frozen by Swiss

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The Swiss government has blocked the assets and frozen the funds of the former Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak and members of his clan, reports indicate. The Swiss foreign ministry said Friday that Switzerland has blocked Mubarak's assets worth several tens of millions of francs, Canadian Press reported. The latest revelation comes a week after the Swiss government said that it froze "any possible assets" in the country belonging to former President Hosni Mubarak, his wife, their two sons and their wives, Mubarak's brother-in-law and five senior politicians belonging to the ousted leader's ruling party. At the time the Egyptian government insisted there was no confirmation such assets actually existed. On Friday, however, the Swiss foreign ministry specified that "several dozens of millions of francs belonging to persons mentioned in last Friday's government order have been blocked." It had no further comment. According to the Swiss National Bank, Egyptian assets in the country's banks totaled 3.6 billion Swiss Francs ($3.8 billion) at the end of 2009. The former Egyptian president allegedly transferred a fortune to friendly Arab states, including the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Mubarak has been accused of amassing huge sums of money -- between 40 to 70 billion dollars -- during his three decades rule. Estimates of Mubarak's fortune vary wildly, but officials in the United States have provided the lowest estimate, at just 2 to 3 billion dollars. Egyptian authorities have asked the European Union (EU) to freeze the assets of top officials under Hosni Mubarak, but they have not yet made a similar request regarding the funds of the ex-President or his family. Switzerland was the first to say it was moving to identify and freeze assets of Mubarak and his family. The EU said this past week it was considering a request from Egypt to freeze the assets of Mubarak's top aides. The EU confirmed, however, that no such request had been submitted about Mubarak or his family. GHN/HRF

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