UK Minister To Hold Conference On Stolen Assets In Cairo Monday
Jeremy Browne, UK Minister of State for Crime Prevention, will be holding a press conference on Monday in Cairo to tackle means of cooperation between the two countries in regard to the return of the Arab Spring countries’ stolen assets, notably, of Egypt.
James Watt, Britain’s Ambassador to Egypt, said Minister Browne’s visit to Cairo will also include holding talks with Egypt’s minister of justice, general prosecutor along with other senior officials over the bilateral cooperation in regard to a multiple files, mainly the return of the country’s stolen assets.
Jeremy Browne, who has started his visit to Cairo on Sunday, has served as UK Minister of State at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in 2010, then become Minister of State in September 2012.
The UK Minister of State for Crime Prevention’s responsibilities include the National Crime Agency and the Crime and Courts Bill, drugs combat, organized crime and the Serious Organized Crime Agency, and also the financial crimes (fraud, asset recovery).
UK senior diplomatic source has asserted that the UK is committed to returning the Arab Spring countries’ stolen assets. Accordingly, a taskforce was formed responsible for the repatriation to Egypt of the stolen assets.
The UK Prime Minister James Cameron announced the formation of a taskforce during his keynote address for the UN General Assembly in September 2012.
Cameron has instructed the taskforce to seek changes to EU regulations to speed up the return of any stolen money to the peoples of the region. He is also appointing a new assets recovery co-ordinator to provide advice on the issue.
The taskforce has already started to work with the Egyptian officials on opening up a bilateral investigation on the return of the stolen money.
The source noted the cooperation between the UK, Egyptian and regional authorities is essential so as to manage to repatriate Egypt’s stolen assets.
The source further added that later this month, UK will send one of the Attorney General in Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to Cairo to work as regional advisor responsible for the stolen money repatriation.
It is worth noting that besides Minister Browne’s visit to Cairo, UK Minister for the Middle East and North Africa Region Affairs Alistair Burt will be also paying a visit to the country next Thursday January 17th in regard to holding talks over the Deauville partnership initiative for the Arab Spring countries’ benefit.
The source also said the UK has become the chairman of the G8 2013 elaborating that Britain’s top priorities would include the stolen asset repatriation.
Meanwhile, UK ambassador to Cairo has expressed his hope that Egypt and the International Monetary Fund would reach an agreement over the $4.8 billion loan.
