IA decade ago, Tunis advanced staggering figures. The total value of the assets of Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali and his clan would reach more than nine billion euros, or nearly a quarter of the Tunisian GDP. And according to Public Eye, an NGO based in Switzerland, the former dictator and his relatives would have passed through the Swiss financial center around 280 million euros in the 2000s. A decade later, Tunisia has not recovered in all and for all that four million euros from Switzerland. “These are crumbs! », Deplores Mounira Ayari, member of the Democratic Bloc and representative of Tunisians in Switzerland, in The weather, the Lausanne daily.
Even more serious, Tuesday January 19 at midnight, the Confederation must end the blocking of the assets of the Ben Ali clan decided just ten years ago. This means that his relatives, in particular his wife Leila Trabelsi (Ben Ali having died in 2019), will be able to reclaim the seized money. A decision that may seem immoral, but which only respects the law. A priori, ten years, that seemed amply sufficient for the Tunisian justice to be able to provide proof that the sums seized had been unjustly earned. However, it was not. In Tunis, most legal proceedings are still ongoing. As a result, as long as a person is not found definitively guilty of corruption, his property cannot be returned to the Tunisian state.
60 million Swiss francs blocked
To better understand what is at stake, we have to go back ten years. Switzerland and the world, the periodical of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, publishes an article entitled: “Billions we don’t want”. He acknowledges that for decades “corrupt leaders around the world have deposited billions of dubious origins in Switzerland.” Now Berne has had enough of “those infamous clients”, and for her image, she “has no interest in keeping values of illegal origin”. Morality: we must block and restore these stolen billions. On January 19, 2011, Switzerland therefore sequestered 60 million Swiss francs (56 million euros) as a preventive measure. But to return them to Tunisia, Tunisian justice must demonstrate that they really belong to the former dictator and his family and that they have been illegally diverted.
However, tyrants rarely leave in the drawers memos thus worded: “Mr. Minister of Finance, please steal a billion dinars and transfer them to my account in Switzerland.” And when they own property abroad, they are usually not registered under their name. They use false noses and hide behind companies registered in the Bahamas or Panama. Add that their financial means allow them to afford the services of the best lawyers in Geneva and Zurich, specializing in the defense of money launderers.
If the Ben Ali clan lodged a complaint against Switzerland!
In 2014, in a premonitory article entitled “The money of the Ben Ali clan can still sleep peacefully in Switzerland”, Le Point Afrique revealed that the federal public prosecutor had wanted to return to the Tunisian government 29 million euros seized from the Belhassen accounts. Trabelsi, the former president’s brother-in-law. But the decision was overturned by the Federal Criminal Court. The public prosecutor considered that Belhassen Trabelsi belonged to a criminal organization which embezzled public funds. And so that his money had been dishonestly earned. But the supreme judges justified their refusal by the fact that the public prosecutor had not examined the explanations and the documents of the brother of Leïla, the wife of Ben Ali. His right to be heard had been violated!
Does the Federal Council (government) plan to extend the administrative ordinance issued in 2011? In this case, he risks wiping the wrath of the Ben Ali clan. The latter may very well sue Switzerland… and win it. Especially since Tunisia has never put much energy to recover the millions embezzled by the former dictator and his entourage.
It should be remembered that the former Zaire never succeeded in getting their hands on the immense domain of Miguettes, in Savigny, in the canton of Vaud, which belonged to former president Mobutu. As for Jean-Claude Duvalier, expelled from Haiti in 1986, he had a foundation in Switzerland with a wealth of around 7 million euros. The Confederation’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs found it impossible to deal with successive authorities in Port-au-Prince. They did not intend to pay the millions of Baby Doc into the country’s budget, but more into their accounts in Switzerland …
Donald-43Westbrook, a distinguished contributor at worldstockmarket, is celebrated for his exceptional prowess in article writing. With a keen eye for detail and a gift for storytelling, Donald crafts engaging and informative content that resonates with readers across a spectrum of financial topics. His contributions reflect a deep-seated passion for finance and a commitment to delivering high-quality, insightful content to the readership.
