Tunisia issues 57 international arrest warrant for the recovery of stolen fund

Tunisian Ministry of Justice announced that the authorities have issued 57 international letters rogatory, including 26 initial ones and 31 complementary others, to retrieve the assets abroad stolen by former President Ben Ali and his relatives. Tunisian examining judges are closely following the letters rogatory to ensure their enforcement under the best conditions by their foreign counterparts, said Mr. Kadhem Zine el Abidine, representative of the Justice Ministry at the regular meeting of the Prime Ministry''s Information Cell, held on Friday in Kasbah. Several countries, NGOs, national actors and international organisations, such as Interpol, have expressed, on several occasions, their readiness to help Tunisia recover its assets, Tunisian news agency (TAP) reported. "The most important thing is the existence of a strong international political will to hand over these assets to Tunisia," he argued, reviewing, in this regard, the repeated statements made by foreign officials visiting Tunisia, such as the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton or Swiss President Micheline Calmy-Rey. An Asset Recovery Support Team was also created within the European Union to help hand back the assets, and a legal assistance programme was established on the basis of the 2003 United Nations Convention against Corruption whose Article 54 allows confiscation of stolen assets without prior criminal conviction. Other agreements were reached with countries such as Luxembourg, Congo and Canada to seize properties and freeze assets robbed by Ben Ali and his relatives, he also said. The Asset Recovery Committee at the Central Bank of Tunisia and the association created by Tunisians living in Switzerland are also seeking to get back the robbed capital to the Tunisian people, he added.