Egypt Will Still Recover Mubarak’s Overseas Assets: PM

Egypt’s Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab said on Tuesday that the acquittal of Hosni Mubarak will not stop efforts to recovery illegal assets that the former dictator stashed abroad.

“Mubarak’s acquittal has nothing to do with the money deposited abroad and does not stand in the way of recovering it,” Mahlab said in a press conference held after a cabinet meeting.

Last December, Switzerland decided to refreeze $767 million of illegal gains deposited by Mubarak’s regime for three more years, according to Reuters’ Aswat Masriya. The Swiss decision came due to Egyptian authorities “failure to reach legal evidence against Mubarak and his family amid political turmoil.”

Swiss law requires Egyptian authorities to produce legal evidence proving that the deposited funds are a result of criminal acts before the money can be returned.

On Saturday, an Egyptian criminal court dropped Mubarak’s charges of corruption and killing protesters in the 2011 uprising which ended his 30-year rule.

In other government news, Mahlab said at the press conference that the cabinet will pass a draft law determining Egypt’s electoral constituencies for upcoming parliamentary polls, rolled back to spring 2015.

If the draft law is approved by the cabinet, it will be revised by the state council’s legislative department and then sent to the president for final approval and issuing.

Source: Ahram Online