Cairo -

According to several indicators, it was not surprising that the European Union Court and the Swiss Prosecution announced the end of the ban on the funds of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and his family;

How did the Mubarak regime transform from a debtor pursued by corruption cases, to a creditor awaiting judicial compensation?

A few days ago, the Federal Public Prosecutor in Switzerland announced the release of funds for Mubarak and a number of those around him, which were frozen in Swiss banks, as part of an investigation that lasted about 11 years, about the source of those funds.

The Mubarak family is supposed to recover up to 400 million Swiss francs ($429 million) after the prosecution failed to file charges against anyone, due to insufficient information contained within the cooperation with the Egyptian authorities, a case that was sparked by the January 25, 2011 revolution, after The overthrow of Mubarak's rule, which lasted 30 years.

The Swiss decision came days after the ruling of the General Court of the European Union on the sixth of April this year, upholding the abolition of sanctions imposed by the European Union on Mubarak and his family and the unfreezing of their assets.

The European Court held that the sanctions were illegal, and ordered the European Council to pay the litigation costs incurred by the Mubarak family.

The Swiss Federal Prosecutor, after 11 years of investigations, completely exonerates Alaa and Gamal Mubarak and confirms the legality of all their activities and the assets associated with them.

Investigations reveal that all assets owned by them have been fully disclosed to the relevant Egyptian authorities. https://t.co/UPcwKh27WC

— Alaa Mubarak (@AlaaMubarak_) April 13, 2022

The decision of the European Court and the Swiss prosecution was not a result of the moment, as it was due to 3 main reasons, after which the Egyptians' dream of recovering what they describe as "smuggled money" faded, according to observers Al Jazeera Net spoke to.

The first was the failure of previous governments to manage the file out of negligence or complicity, the second was the acquittal rulings issued by the Egyptian judiciary against Mubarak and his regime department, and the third was reconciliation and settlement within the framework of an implicit agreement through which the government obtained sums of money in exchange for the acquittal rulings.

Al Jazeera Net seeks to answer questions about the fate of those funds, and has the curtain finally been closed on the possibility of recovering it?

Or can it be claimed legally in the future, and why focus on Switzerland alone?

Is the case over or can it be claimed in the future?

Despite the recent decisions, Abdullah Al-Ashal, a professor of international law and a former assistant foreign minister, did not lose hope in recovering his country's smuggled money abroad, and he said through a legal path that may seem difficult if not impossible.

Al-Ashal said that the case is now over, but it can be moved in the future, explaining that from a legal point of view, the way is still open to reviving the case, provided that there is a government that demands this, after the Mubarak regime is retrial, then issued a decision to condemn it by an Egyptian court, then demand the implementation of Judgment in Switzerland for refund.

But the former diplomat added that this can only be done if the smuggled money is kept in Switzerland without moving it to another place.

Contrary to the previous opinion, the Egyptian economic expert Abdel Nabi Abdel Muttalib saw that the file of recovering the smuggled funds had ended and had become a thing of the past.

After Egypt closed the door to claim its retrieval.

Why did the efforts of 10 years fail?

In this context, Abd al-Nabi Abd al-Muttalib stresses that the reasons are many and varied, the most important of which is the lack of experience in tracking smuggled funds, the way to deal with them, and the lack of assistance from international offices specialized in this field.

Also, Switzerland, England and other countries that froze Egyptian funds waited - according to Abdul Muttalib - for final court rulings that these funds were obtained through corruption, abuse of influence or bribery, but this did not happen.

He added that the Muslim Brotherhood managed the file badly during its rule between 2012 and 2013, he said, then the current regime came to make settlements and reconciliations, which prompted Mubarak’s two sons to demand their balances in European banks because the Egyptian state was unable to prove corruption charges, which is what He received a response from the European side.

For his part, the Egyptian politician and member of the Defense and National Security Committee in the former Shura Council, Tharwat Nafie, said that the issue of smuggled money did not receive good attention from the Brotherhood’s rule, despite working on it well through specialized professors, noting that after the overthrow of the late President Mohamed Morsi was Naturally, the deep state, which has been running the country for decades, does not take care of the smuggled money file.

Nafeh added that many men of the deep state had money smuggled abroad, so the file was neglected, and it was not in the interest of any of them to reveal other convicted names, who may be currently in power, according to his belief.

The previous opinion is consistent with what was previously revealed by Mohamed Mahsoub, Minister of Legal Affairs under Morsi, that the smuggled money file is one of the most important files defended by the deep state after the revolution, blaming the Morsi government for the failure to recover the smuggled funds.

After leaving the matter to a judicial committee formed by the ruling military council after the overthrow of Mubarak.

Mahsoub - who said that he resigned from his position due to the failure of the file to recover smuggled funds from abroad - stated that the Judicial Committee spent more than 60 million pounds at the time on trips abroad, without getting anything back, and was supported by the deep state.

He explained - in a previous interview with Al-Jazeera - that the money smuggled by the Mubarak regime was huge, not less than 220 billion dollars, through a large corruption network.

Where did the Mubarak family come from with all those millions?

Former politician and parliamentarian, Tharwat Nafeh, believes that Mubarak's money is a thorny file, and there is nothing that can achieve for Mubarak, his children and the pillars of his regime such a large amount of money, even if it is many investments.

Nafeh considered the amount of smuggled money a condemnation of the Mubarak regime above all, including what he described as "its extension represented by the current ruling regime," expecting that there was a lot of smuggled money before the 2011 revolution that was not disclosed.

Why focus on Switzerland only, is there no money smuggled in other countries?

The former diplomat ruled out the existence of deliberately focusing on Switzerland, explaining that it is a country known for covering up looted funds from third world countries, he said, in addition to the possibility of other Egyptian funds being smuggled in the names of other people in Switzerland.

This is what the expert Abdul Muttalib agreed with by saying that smuggled funds for Mubarak and his regime have not been detected so far except in Switzerland, England and France, explaining that these are the countries that have disclosed the existence of accounts for Mubarak, his children and his regime, while the rest of the countries have not announced that.

He pointed out that the Egyptian authorities themselves did not announce the existence of 9 billion in a personal account in the name of Mubarak inside the Central Bank until 2014.

Switzerland and England - among several countries revealed by the former minister Mahsoub - are also a destination for Mubarak's money, explaining that a country like the UAE did not cooperate with Egypt in the file of recovering funds.

Mahsoub stressed that the Arab countries that supported the overthrow of Morsi had the largest proportion of the money smuggled during the Mubarak era, but it remains difficult to know its size due to the role of the deep state in killing the file or the lack of cooperation with the Morsi government.

It is worth $429 million.. Switzerland closes an 11-year investigation into money laundering and releases the money of the late Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and his two sons pic.twitter.com/RHg2bms67x

- Al Jazeera (@AJArabic) April 14, 2022

Is the last Swiss decision related to the Mubarak family only?

The Swiss investigations initially targeted a large number of Mubarak’s circle and his family, but the Public Prosecutor’s Office indicated that the last part of the investigation focused on only 5 people, without specifying their identities, which raised questions about the position of the others, especially after Western press investigations revealed new names.

Last February, press investigations revealed accounts of businessmen and politicians affiliated with the Mubarak regime, including the former Director of General Intelligence and Mubarak's deputy, Major General Omar Suleiman, businessman Hussein Salem, and former Minister of Information Anas al-Fiqi.

According to the investigations, Egypt came at the forefront of countries whose officials have secret accounts in Swiss banks.