Switzerland is optimistic about concluding a legal assistance procedure to freeze the assets of former Egyptian regime figures like the one it undertook for Tunisia, says a top official. The state agency MENA cited the Swiss news and information platform (Swissinfo) as saying that Switzerland blocked SFr410 million ($445 million) of assets said to belong to former President Hosni Mubarak and his entourage.

Swiss officials say the possible return of the blocked assets has been affected by neither chaos nor elections. “We are still continuing our contacts with the Egyptian authorities,” Valentin Zellweger, head of the international law department of the Swiss foreign ministry, told swissinfo.ch.

“Based on these, we believe the Egyptian justice system will pursue criminal proceedings.”

Swiss law only allows money frozen in its banks to be confiscated and returned after its source has been declared illicit by a court, but Switzerland is confident that it can attain its goal of finalising a formal legal procedure with Egypt similar to the one it did with Tunisia, said the legal expert.

At the beginning of October Tunisia’s request for legal assistance concerning the restitution of SFr60 million held in Swiss banks belonging to former President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali and his entourage was accepted by the Federal Justice Office.