$112 million worth of Syrian assets frozen in Switzerland

The Swiss Ministry of Economy stated that the value of Syrian assets deposited in Swiss banks and frozen due to sanctions amounts to about 99 million francs (about 112 million dollars), quoted by Agence France-Presse.

The ministry denied that any of this money belonged to the ousted President Bashar al-Assad.

The Ministry explained that these funds were frozen under the sanctions adopted by Switzerland in 2011 in agreement with the European Union, which targeted Al-Assad and his partners due to the widespread human rights violations committed by his government.

But she clarified that these assets do not belong to Assad directly, confirming reports published by the newspaper “Neue Züricher Zeitung” that the Syrian assets in the Swiss banking system are relatively few.

The Swiss newspaper stated that when any dictator falls, as happened with Assad after the opposition factions took control of Damascus on Sunday, “Switzerland and its financial center automatically become at the forefront of attention.”

But it does not seem that Swiss banks will start pursuing “Assad’s millions” in the near future, as “financial relations between Switzerland and Syria have virtually frozen since 2011,” according to the Zurich-based newspaper.

The newspaper also pointed out that Swiss banks have largely withdrawn from the Syrian market, which was profitable in the early 2000s.

Currently, the Swiss sanctions list includes 318 individuals and 87 entities related to Syria and Assad, whose overthrow ended more than five decades of dictatorial rule for his family.

Thanks to their policy of secrecy, Swiss banks have long become a haven for governments and individuals wishing to avoid international scrutiny.

Among the most notorious deposits in Swiss bank vaults are millions of gold bullion that Nazi Germany shipped to the small mountainous country during World War II, in addition to looted assets from countries invaded by the Nazis and other victims of the Holocaust.