Friday, 6 May 2011

Swiss banks release details on Gbagbo's frozen assets

Laurent Gbagbo was arrested in April

The Swiss government has said they have frozen assets worth US$81million linked to former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo.

The government ordered the freeze in January, after Gbagbo refused to cede power despite losing the presidential election to Alassane Ouattara.

Cote d'Ivoire must prove Gbagbo's assets were gained criminally in order to reclaim them.

Some 3000 people were killed in four months of fighting and hundreds of thousands were displaced.

In early December 2010, the Ivory Coast Election Commission (CEI) declared Ouattara the winner of the presidential election. However the Constitutional Court, headed by Paul Yao N'Dre, a Gbagbo ally, annulled thousands of votes cast in favour of Ouattara because of alleged fraud, and declared Gbagbo the winner.

The international community rejected the fraud allegations and recognised Ouattara as the rightful winner.

Gbagbo was arrested in April and he is currently being investigated for alleged human rights abuses.

The Swiss government said earlier this week that it had frozen about US$1 billion in assets linked to former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, former Tunisian president Zine Al-Abidine Ben Ali, and Libyan leader Mu'ammar Qadhafi.

Sources: BBC News, WSJ, GlobalGeopolitics

For more information, please see the Menas ACCS website, here.

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