Tunisia

House of Lords written question – answered at on 11 February 2013.

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Photo of Lord Hylton Lord Hylton Crossbench

To ask Her Majesty's Government what amount of Tunisian assets, frozen on the fall of the Ben Ali regime, have so far been returned to Tunisia (1) by Her Majesty's Government, and (2) by the European Union; and, in each case, what proportion of the total frozen assets that represents.

Photo of Lord Taylor of Holbeach Lord Taylor of Holbeach The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department

The UK strongly supports the Tunisian Government's efforts to track down illegally acquired assets removed from Tunisia under the Ben Ali Government and has been working with EU partners to facilitate this. An EU asset freeze was imposed against 48 individuals named by the Tunisian Government on 4 February 2011 and criminal penalties for breaches of the asset freeze are in place.

The UK implemented EU sanctions in respect of Tunisia robustly and promptly. The names can be found on the HM Treasury's consolidated list of financial sanctions is available at: http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/d/sanctionsconlist.pdf which is checked by the financial sector against client and customer databases to identify accounts and transactions. The EU asset freeze has been implemented in the UK's Overseas Territories.

To date, a small amount of assets has been frozen within the UK. We are in contact with the Tunisian Government over the legal processes involved in releasing and repatriating these assets. We do not hold information on assets returned by other EU countries.

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