Foreign Ministry spokesperson Amr Roshdy has said thatSwiss Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter met with his Egyptiancounterpart Mohamed Kamel Amr on Sunday, and assured him that hiscountry was fully prepared to cooperate with Egypt to return fundssmuggled to Switzerland by members of the Mubarak regime if they are convicted of financial crimes.
Amr stressed Egypt’s eagerness to complete the legal procedures required to return the stolen funds, Roshdy added.
Burkhalter reportedly said that returning the assets is as much a priority for Switzerland as it is for Egypt.
Egypt has so far sent a list of 17 former regimefigures whose assets it wants Switzerland to freeze, Roshdy quoted theSwiss minister as saying.
Prime Minister Hesham Qandil called on the Swiss government to take steps to hasten the recovery of Egyptian funds smuggled to Switzerland during a meeting with Burkhalter Sunday morning.
During the meeting, which was also attended by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mohamed Mahsoub, Qandil also expressed gratitude to the Swiss government for its efforts to recover stolen funds.
According to a statement from Mahsoub issued by the Cabinet, the meeting also addressed ways to activate and strengthen economic relations and trade between the two countries as well as ways to encourage Swiss investment to return to Egypt. Egypt was formerly the second most popular investment location for Swiss capital in Africa.
Burkhalter arrived in Egypt on Saturday for a three-day visit to meet President Mohamed Morsy and Qandil.
In July, the Swiss news agency SDA reported that authorities had frozen more assets belonging to former President Hosni Mubarak and members of his regime, driving the total of estimated smuggled funds from 410 million Swiss francs (US$414 million) to US$700 million.
Since the start of Arab uprisings last year, Switzerland has also blocked funds stashed in its banks linked to former Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi, former Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
