UAE yet to respond to Egypt's asset freeze request
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The United Arab Emirates (UAE) government has yet to comply with a request made by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry weeks ago to freeze the financial assets and bank accounts of several Egyptian officials, a local English daily reported Tuesday.
The appeal was still pending after the Egyptian Embassy contacted the UAE government several weeks ago, Tamer Mansour, Egypt's ambassador to the Gulf nation, was quoted by The National as saying.
Among officials currently being investigated by Egypt's attorney general are cabinet ministers and senior officials, he said.
"This (request) was sent out to several countries, Arabic and European, not just to the UAE," Mansour said. "We sent a request to the UAE authorities a few weeks ago but still didn't get a response yet."
According to The National, Switzerland has been the quickest country to respond to the Egyptian request to date, freezing assets of former President Hosni Mubarak and his associates.
Mansour hoped that the plea would be granted as the UAE "has always been cooperative in the past," saying it would take a while to find the accounts in question, to know which names they are under and to whom they actually belong, as well as for the freeze order to be passed down.
"The procedure will take time, for sure," the Egyptian ambassador said, adding that the total number of accounts that might be affected in the UAE and the assets the country hold cannot be known without information from local banks.
Last week, Egypt's Foreign Ministry requested the Egyptian embassies in Arab and Western countries to follow the process of freezing Mubarak's assets.
Egyptian embassies should contact the concerned judicial authorities in the relevant countries to proceed with the freezing procedures, the ministry said in a statement.
Mubarak resigned on Feb. 11 and handed over his power to the army after 18 days of nationwide protests that caused around 365 deaths.
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