"Arab Spring" nations seek to retrieve stolen funds

Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani affirmed on Tuesday that "Arab Spring nations" were seeking to recover embezzled national resources and assets. The Emir, addressing inauguration of the three-day Arab Forum on Asset Recovery, affirmed significance of a new global approach to retake the stolen national wealth, and called for greater international efforts to secure "legal frameworks for combating corruption." Absence of international coordination in the past for combating such offenses led to spread of poverty and unemployment, he added. Tunisian President Mohammad Moncef Al-Marzouki, who also addressed the broad gathering, urged major powers to devote special attention to bids by "Arab Spring" countries to re-claim national resources and assets. Such a step will constitute support for the democratic track in the regional and "Arab Spring" countries, he said. Nations of the globe shoulder a political and moralistic responsibility to help in retrieval of these stolen funds, he said. "The forum addresses a crucial issue which is protecting people against tyranny and offenses such as stealing funds of the poor people so that some powers and figures get rich," the Tunisian President said. He expressed hope that Qatari Attorney General Ali Al-Marri, who was recently named as the UN Special Advocate on Stolen Asset Recovery, would succeed in his international mission. Al-Marzouki described tyrannical regimes that were ousted in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen, in addition to Syria, as "great catastrophes," warning that leaders of these nations could no longer consider themselves as above the law. Tunisia will propose during a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, due in the end of this month, formation of an international constitutional court to look into cases, filed by human rights organizations and opposition political parties, he revealed. Switzerland, the European Union and Canada have frozen assets of the ousted president Zine El-Abidine Bin Ali, his wife and figures that were close to the couple, however the current authorities in Tunisia have not possessed information about status of these suspends funds, he said, affirming difficulties facing Tunis in bringing back these assets.