President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and hidden in Swiss banks
March 24th, 2011
They demanded the restitution of looted funds by the former regime of ousted President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and hidden in Swiss banks.
The demonstrators handed over to the Swiss Ambassador Pierre Combernous provided a petition of nearly 10,000 signatures, collected in one week, told the ATS Remadi Sami, President of the Tunisian Association for Financial Transparency (ATTF) that organized this gathering.
Remadi says, the interview was “very fruitful”. Mr. Combernous assured members of the ATTF that Switzerland is a state of law, that the freezing of accounts was effective and that they could trust the federal government. He promised an official response to this petition Berne and indicated that the Swiss government would “try to speed things up.”
Origin of “obvious”
The Swiss diplomat has also explained the procedure. He stressed that the government and the Tunisian Central Bank must do their investigation and provide evidence that the funds frozen in Switzerland are of criminal origin.
“The origin of illicit funds is more than obvious,” replied Sami Remadi. He said the Swiss requirements are “completely incomprehensible” for the Tunisian street.
It accuses the international community have been aware of the embezzlement, but of having “walked with Ben Ali” for years. “We are indebted to the hilt, we will not be indebted even longer,” says he, too, reminding that Tunisia’s debt reached 40% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Millions
The amounts involved are huge, “says Mr. Remadi, recalling that a treasure trove including chinese jewellery and 41 million dinars in cash (26 million dollars), according to the Central Bank of Tunisia, were discovered in the palace of Sidi Dhrif in Sidi Boussaïd. He said the bulk of funds invested abroad has been transferred to Switzerland.
Bern does not have figures on the amount of funds Ben Ali blocked so far. On 20 February the Public Prosecutor of the Confederation (MPC) had reported checking a total of 80 million francs Tunisian capital invested in Switzerland