The Swiss foreign ministry said on Tuesday that the country has blocked 100 million Swiss francs ($108 million)l inked to the former Libyan dictator, Muammar Gaddafi, as part of nearly 1 billion Swiss francs blocked in relation to the various "Arab Spring" states.
Valentin Zellweger, head of the international law department at the Swiss foreign ministry, said other Libyan funds have been released as sanctions were eased on state-run enterprises.
He added that Switzerland is the only country that has published the amount of funds it has frozen, but it remains unclear how long it would take to return the cash.
The fastest such procedure ever carried out by Switzerland took five years, relating to funds linked with Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha.
AFP reports that while frozen in Switzerland, the funds are managed conservatively, and any interest gained is returned to the country in question, along with the capital.
(Sources: Bloomberg, Reuters, AFP)
