The Swiss embassy in Cairo has stated that for frozen Egyptian assets held in Switzerland to be returned, ousted president Hosni Mubarak, and other members of his regime suspected of corruption, will have to be tried and convicted.

Egyptian officials have recently stated that a judicial commission is being formed to start talks with Switzerland. The commission was meant to reach an agreement with Switzerland to see 412 million swiss francs, previously held in the accounts of former Egyptian regime figures, are refunded to Egypt.

According to the new Swiss law, which dictates that illegal assets can be refunded, Egyptian officials believed they could secure for Egypt the return of its assets.

However, the Swiss embassy in Egypt told the online Arabia news network that such a law can only be applied when dealing with assets owned by countries that do not have a functioning judicial system, unlike in Egypt's case where the judicial system has successfully been able to persure cases against those suspected of corruption. Thus Switzerland will wait for a final judgement regarding the accused former regime figures before proceeding with Egypt's request for the assets to be transferred.  

The embassy has further stated that a delegation of Swiss legal experts has been sent to Egypt to assist judicial authorities secure the returhn of the frozen assets.