GENEVA, (Reuters) – Switzerland’s top court ordered yesterday that some 7.7 million Swiss francs ($7.11 million) of assets of the late Zairean leader Mobutu Sese Seko be unfrozen, clearing the way for their return to his heirs.
The move is likely to embarrass the government, which is trying to keep Switzerland off an international blacklist of financial centres whose tax rules facilitate money laundering.
“The banks will be informed that these funds have now been unblocked,” a foreign ministry spokeswoman said in answer to an enquiry.
The Swiss government initially froze the funds in 1997 at the request of the African state, now named the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and extended the freeze in 2008 to allow a lawyer representing Congo to launch a case to block the funds.
But the public prosecutor rejected the case, arguing that under Switzerland’s statute of limitations people surrounding Mobutu, who died in 1997, could no longer be considered a criminal organisation.
