Egyptian and foreign officials on Tuesday held a closed meeting in a hotel in Cairo to discuss ways to repatriate money siphoned abroad by figures of the former regime, Mubarak and his family.

The meeting comes as part of an international conference organized by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, with the participation of the Justice Ministry, the Illicit Gains Authority (IGA), the Department of International Cooperation of the office of the attorney general, the Foreign Ministry, the Money Laundering Unit, representatives of EU countries, and experts from the United States, Belgium, Britain and France, all convening for three days.

IGA chairman Assem al-Gohary briefed the conference on the obstacles that the committee has encountered during its work with European countries, and the motives which compelled it to file a lawsuit against Britain to oblige her to cooperate with Egypt. He also called for handing over criminals and fugitives, and the money they have syphoned abroad.

Commenting on claims that Britain refuses to return frozen funds to the Egyptian government, the British ambassador in Cairo said: “There is full cooperation with Egypt on the nature of such funds and ways to return them.”

Shortly after Mubarak was forced to step down, the attorney general ordered the foreign assets of the deposed president and his family to be frozen.

Gohary once estimated the frozen money of Mubarak alone to amount to 410 million Swiss francs, which Egypt is trying to repatriate in cooperation with the Foreign Ministry.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm