'Ben Ali's seized assets exceed budget'

Tunisia’s Minister of State Property and Real Estate Affairs, Slim Ben Hamidene, has told Arabstoday that assets confiscated from former Tunisian President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali and his family and entourage “exceeded the state budget.” Urging an end to the transition, the Tunisian minister also assured Arabstoday that presidential and legislative elections can be held on the appointed dates appointed. The sums seized, the minister said, could solve all development problems and take Tunisia past poverty and geographical inequality, in addition to opening new economic horizons for the North African country. Speaking about the obstacles facing Tunisia’s endeavours to retrieve funds smuggled abroad, Ben Hamidene said “The state is about to activate all legal, judicial and diplomatic procedures in order to recover the Tunisian’s people pilfered rights and resources.” Judicially, Hemidane said international treaties will be tapped into to enforce rulings. Precautionary measures will also be taken, the minister said, such as freezing all smuggled funds within the bounds of the government’s knowledge of such assets. Hemidane also told Arabstoday that his government has hired one of the most celebrated law firms in Switzerland to handle the case, adding that the United Nations has expressed willingness to help Tunisia in this regard by assigning an official to track the extremely high costs of the legal pursuit. In terms of diplomacy, Ben Hemidane said his country was seeking to gain the cooperation of all states concerned with the dossier of asset-smuggling by the remnants of the old regime and its entourage in accordance with these countries’ sense of ethical and humanitarian duty. On the value of the pilfered and smuggled funds, the minister said the real size of the assets involved remains unknown and is difficult to determine, as they are scattered across several Arab and foreign states. However, he did reveal that the confiscated assets exceeded the 26.792 billion-dinar state budget. The State Properties top official said his ministry had fulfilled its pledge toward the 2012 supplementary budget, having pumped around $1,500 million into the fiscal plan. He also reaffirmed vows on behalf of the ministry to adhere to its 2013 budgetary pledges. Ben Hamidane also responded to a question about the accusations levelled at his ministry over corruption in the alienation of confiscated assets by suspicious and illegal methods, such as the case of the Banque de Tunisie stake which was awarded to an unknown and shady financial holding company called Royal Luxembourg. The minister attempted to rebut the accusations, telling Arabstoday that “tampering with the Tunisian people’s money and wealth has become impossible after the revolution, especially in the presence of monitoring bodies as well as under the citizen’s right of access to information.” These circumstances, the minister said “make these accusations false and spurious in the new Tunisian state which consecrates the principle of transparency and prohibits and criminalises attack on the people’s rights.” On the realism of the dates announced by Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali for the first round of presidential and legislative elections [September and July 2013 respectively], the Minister of State Property told Arabstoday they were achievable. He also emphasised the need for all national forces and camps in the country to band together and adhere to calm to allow the Tunisian Constituent Council to perform its duty of ratifying the draft constitution—which he said was ready to be tabled for discussion—as well as passing the three bills pertaining to the electoral authority, media regulations and the independent judicial body. The Tunisian minister concluded the interview by stressing the need to end the provisional transitional period as soon as possible in order to ensure stability and move towards permanent, elected state institutions.